Title: A Dream Within A Dream
Author: Sarah
Rating: Overall NC-17
Disclaimers: They're really mine, but you all were just tricked into
thinking they belonged to Joss? *coughs* Really, I swear I'm telling the
truth. *pauses* Anyone believe me? *hopeful look*
Notes: This is the sequel to Is It Love. It might be confusing, but I'm
trying to have it make as much sense as possible, really.
Summary: Set after Graduation II, Faith wakes up from a coma, and is unsure
of what reality actually is.

Dedication: To Anne for being my best friend and finally admitting that
putting out a new chapter of a fic isn't as easy to do as we all wish it
could be. And to everyone who's never played mind games with me. I
appreciate it.

*******

"Hey C, come here for a second," I shout as I climb into bed. It's weird,
sharing a bed with C like this since we aren't together. Even weirder when I
know they have empty beds in the house, or even a perfectly good couch to
sleep on. Maybe it's that safety thing she said last night. Kinda like
keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. But I'm not an enemy.

"Impatient much?" I hear her ask as she walks into the room. She's only got
two towels on, one covering her body and one wrapped around her hair and I
can smell the scent of the shower gel she had been using from across the
room. It smells of something almost exotic and I can't think to even make a
coherent sentence as I stare at the sight of perfection in front of me. So
unguarded, vulnerable, and absolutely stunning. "Incoherent already?" she
asks all too sweetly.

Nodding furiously I open my mouth to speak, but nothing but a few pants and
whimpers come out. I've missed touching that body, making love to her,
hearing her cry out my name. Fuck, I'm going to need a cold shower after
this.

"If I'm correct, I do owe you for that little shower thing earlier, right?"
She let out a lascivious grin as she moved over to her dresser, pulling out
some night clothes. After she sets them down on the bed next to me I watch
as she takes the towel from her head, drying her hair off as much as she can
with it. "Now what did you want when you called me?"

I called her? Oh right, there was something. I try to tear my eyes off of
her to concentrate but I'm helpless as I watch her drop the towel around her
body. "See. Giles. Tomorrow," I manage to splutter as I watch her slowly
pulling on her panties. She has the greatest legs I've ever seen. I just
want to reach out and... Stop! "Giles. Yeah, Giles is old right? Not sexy.
No sexy legs on Giles. Eww, Giles is gross."

She's laughing at me now. She's torturing me and she finds it funny. No way
am I going to sit around for that. In one fluid movement I reach out to pull
her in my arms before tossing her down on the bed. I quickly move so I'm
sitting on her hips, making sure she can't go anywhere. "You know it's not
nice to tease like that."

A brief look of panic flashes over her eyes and I realize she doesn't really
trust me yet. Not that I can really blame her I suppose. As gently as I can
while keeping my eyes on hers, I move my body so that I'm laying between her
legs, and so our stomachs are pressed together as I rest my weight on my
elbows. I can feel her body relaxing a little beneath mine as she realizes
I'm not going to try anything. "Now, as I was saying before you decided to
tease me in the worst way possible, can we go see Giles tomorrow?"

"I thought we agreed to wait a while until we figured something out?" Her
hand comes up to start playing with my hair and I can't help but smile at
that simple gesture.

"Well now B knows I'm here and I really just wanna get it figured out.
You've got no idea what it's like having nothing but false memories. I just
want to know something."

"I thought you already knew something."

"I do huh?"

"Uh huh." I watch her grinning as she reaches over and grabs the small bear
I gave her earlier to show me.

"I know I'm sorry for earlier?"

She shakes her head and laughs softly at me. For a moment I actually forgot
that she was near naked lying beneath me. I guess she has too since she
hasn't tried to move me off of her yet. "There is that."

"There's more?" I prop myself farther up so I'm looking down into her eyes.
"There's the small thing about me knowing I'm in love with you if that
matters at all." When I feel her arms around me, pulling me closer I can't
help but think that my loving her obviously does mean something. "Why'd you
kiss me earlier?" I ask softly.

"Because I wanted to. Kinda like I do now," she whispers back before leaning
up and softly brushing her lips over mine. I press into her, slowly
deepening the kiss before sliding my tongue over her bottom lip. I almost
expected her to pull away and smack me or something but instead she opened
her mouth for me, sliding her tongue out against mine.

"C wait," I breathe out as I pull away from her. "If we don't stop now I
don't think I'll be able to."

"Can't even handle kissing?" she teases.

"Not with you ninety-five percent naked beneath me and most certainly not
after that little show you tried putting on for me."

"Fair enough," she replies before giving me another quick, chaste kiss.
"Might as well get some sleep, it's been a long enough day."

"G'night doll."

"You know I kinda like that name," she says as I move so I'm laying next to
her before wrapping one of my legs around hers and my arm around her waist.

I place a soft kiss on her neck before resting my head on her shoulder. "I
always liked calling you that," I mumble as I close my eyes.

"Don't go trying to cop any cheap feels while I'm sleeping either." I can
almost hear her smile at that.

"Like you'd complain?" I joke back, letting my fingertips softly trace
patterns on her arm.

"I would if I was asleep to miss it," she laughs softly.

"You're gonna kill me you know," I laugh as well as I poke her in the side.

"Nah, I just got you. I'm not sick of you enough to let you go, yet," she
jokes and I start tickling her. "Hey, what happened to sleep?" she giggles
out and I stop tickling.

"You started it."

"Very mature."

"Yup, just like me," I beam as I go back to drawling lazy patterns on her
arm.

"Right, I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"You better, or else you'll be sleeping alone," I yawn, burrowing deeper
into her embrace.

"You wouldn't do that to me. Or yourself much less." I feel her hand in my
hair, softly curling it around her fingers again and shut my eyes as I
listen to her gentle breathing.

"No, I wouldn't. But I should. And I will if you don't let me get some damn
sleep."

"Geez Oscar, grouchy much?"

"Oscar? Where the hell did you get that?"

"Sesame Street? Oscar the grouch? Were you really that deprived as a child?"

"I'm not sure anymore, remember?" I whisper softly.

"Well how about this, I'll wake your lazy ass up tomorrow and we can watch
it okay?"

"You dare to wake me up huh?" I laugh softly, feeling myself grow more
tired.

"Why not? You love me, you won't hurt me."

"You know I've got my eyes closed but I can still see that silly grin on
your face. Now let me sleep already before I start copping cheap feels with
you awake."

"I might not complain," she chuckles.

"Maybe not, but when I touch you I don't want there to be anything cheap
about it. Now shut up and let me sleep."

"Fine fine, you win. Good night."

"Night C. Love you."

****

"This show sucks. Why the hell did you wake me up for this? Can't I turn on
X-Men?" I try to reach for the remote but Cordy's being stubborn as per
usual.

"This is a very educational show. It's good for you and not about killing
and demons. My God, isn't that already a big enough part of your life?"

"So? I might learn new techniques. Now turn this shit off. I already know
how to count to ten."

"Really? I'm impressed."

"Bite me," I stick my tongue out as I pounce on top of her, pinning her arms
down and grab the remote. "Ha, I win."

"You cheated," she pouts at me. "It's not fair to use your slayer strength
against me."

"Well you can't pout! That's cheating too."

"Well give me the remote and I'll stop pouting," she grins.

"I've got a better way to make your pout go away," I smile widely before
leaning down to kiss her gently. "Better?" I ask as I pull away.

"Almost, but maybe another one would help?" This time she leans up to kiss
me, pressing her lips to mine before sucking my bottom lip into her mouth.
Just as the kiss deepens and I forget about the remote I feel her grabbing
it from my hand before she pulls away from me. "I win."

"Cheater," I take my turn to pout as I sit back on the couch, crossing my
arms.

"I know, I'm a bitch," she smiles innocently. "But I'll make it up to you."

"You'll turn on X-Men?" I ask hopefully.

"No dumbass. Why the hell would I do that?" I watch as she wrinkles her nose
in disgust and I can't help but find it cute. "But I'll take you to your
apartment now if you want."

"Really?" I grin so wide at the thought of having my own stuff again I think
my jaw could burst.

"Yeah, I mean, we gotta get you set up somewhere ya know. For when I move
and all," she says softly, turning so she's not looking at me.

"So are you saying you're not going to fall in love with me?" I ask, just as
softly. "Because you said you'd stay if you did."

"But I can't stay here. I don't belong here in this boring town. You know
that."

"So what? You told me you'd stay even though it was a lie? Let me fall even
more in love with you even though I'm going to lose you anyways? Real
fuckin' mature C." I stand up and want to head for the door, but as I
learned last night, there isn't much I can do out there so I might as well
stay in here and face this.

"Faith, calm down and let me finish. Come to LA with me?" she asks as she
walks over to me and puts her hand on my arm softly.

"With what money C? How?"

"I don't know, we'll figure it out. Lets just go one step at a time okay?
First we'll go to your apartment, figure out what you own and stuff. Then
we'll talk to Giles and see what happened and we'll go from there okay?"

"Sounds like a plan," I reply as I give her a quick kiss. I'm kinda nervous
about the whole thing, not really sure what her and I are yet, but the 'just
because' kisses seem to be an okay thing to do for now.

"Yeah, it does. Plans are good," she mumbles against my lips before kissing
me back.

"Know what's even better?" I ask when I pull away and wrap my arm around her
waist.

"What's that?" she questions back, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. For
all of five seconds the fact that she's taller than me actually bothers me.

"You," I grin up at her.

"You dork," she laughs as she bends down to kiss me again.

"Your dork," I smile as she takes my hand in hers and pulls me out of the
house.

****

"Holy shit, I lived here?" I ask as I look into the spacious apartment.

"Yeah, the mayor bought it for you once you turned on us. This umm," she
pauses and pointed over to the shattered window that was now covered with
some sort of plastic. "This is where you and Buffy last fought."

"When she put me in a coma?" I ask softly as I walk over to the window, for
the first time taking in the damage at the apartment. I feel Cordelia's arms
wrapping around me from behind and I lean into her embrace, thankful for her
comfort.

"Why don't we just see what we can find here for now? Maybe clothes and
whatever belongings you have."

I nod as I move from her arms and go towards the closet. The first thing I
notice is that I've got a whole wardrobe of leather pants and wife beaters.
This was definitely my apartment all right. As I'm sorting through the
clothes the most God awful thing sticks out. "What the fuck is this?" I ask
as I pull out a hideously pink dress.

Cordelia takes hey eyes off some contraption that she was playing with on
the bed and starts laughing so hard it looks like she'll fall over. "I never
knew you were into pink, princess," she says between fits of laughter.

"This so can't be mine. Someone had to put that there. I would never wear
that. No way in fuckin' hell," I blurt out as I throw the dress across the
room at Cordelia.

"Uh huh, sure, whatever you say Pinky."

"You're so asking for it," I said as I stalked towards her, ready to finish
that tickle job I started last night.

"Hey, what is this anyways?" she asks holding up that weird contraption she
had been toying with.

"Hell if I know," I shrug. "And don't you even try changing the subject on
me."

"Umm, what subject?"

"Come on now, I know you're not that dense. Oh wait, you are. I retract that
statement."

"Bitch," she laughs as she pulls me down on top of her.

"I thought you were the bitch here? Aren't I the dork?" I respond before
leaning down to kiss her.

"My dork," she answers before her fingers find my ticklish spot.

I roll off of her as fast as possible, covering my sides with my hands and
stick my tongue out at her. I move so I'm laying on my side and look at the
old magazines sitting on top of the night stand beside the bed. When I open
the top drawer there's nothing but more magazines there and a stash of some
really old candy. Closing that one I reach down to open the bottom drawer as
I feel Cordelia behind me, wrapping her arm around my waist.

"Hey uhh... Doll?"

"Yeah Pinky?" she laughs softly as I roll over to face her.

"Call me that again and I swear I'm going to kick your ass," I threaten,
trying to sound as serious as possible.

"Whatever. You know you won't. Now what's the what? Why are you looking all
shocked?"

I reach my hand down into the drawer and grab a handful of its contents and
hold it up for her to see. "I'm loaded," I grin widely as I toss the handful
of hundred dollar bills at her. I watch as her eyes light up and she moves
on top of me to look down at the drawer, full of nothing but cash.

"See, now you have money to come to LA with me," she grins before kissing me
again.

"Hmm, but now I've got this cool pad, a kick ass wardrobe, and a shit load
of cash. What makes you think I still wanna go with you?" I tease as I move
so I'm laying on my back and look up at the ceiling.

"Because you love me of course," she says as she moves so she's sitting on
my hips.

"Hey," I whisper as I look up at her, smiling softly. "I umm... Will you be
my girl C?"

"Hmmm," she looks down at me, a thoughtful expression on her face and I can
feel my breath catching in my throat. "I think I'd like that," she smiles
before kissing me again.

"You think?" I ask when she pulls away.

"I know," she replies, a smile forming on her lips before she lays her body
down on top of mine, resting her head on my chest.

"I love you Cordelia," I murmur as I start playing with her hair. A part of
me wishes she'd just say it back, even if she didn't mean it, but I suppose
it's better than being lied to.

"I could stay like this forever," is her only response, and I can't help but
laugh.

"Yeah right, I'd give you twenty minutes before you were in need of a
magazine, a television, or some shopping. Besides, we gotta go see G-man and
figure out what the fucks up so we can get outta this town right?"

"I ever tell you I love the way you think?" she asks as she looks up to
smile at me.

"No, but feel free too any time. My ego can always use the boost."

"I think it's already big enough. So are you ready to face the gang if
they're around?"

"I guess. I'm going to have to. It's that or never find out what the hells
up."

"Well then let's go."

"You gotta get off of me first dummy," I laugh as I see the light bulb go
off in her head. Sometimes I wonder if she tries to be this dense.

"Hey, do you think this is all too fast?" she asks as she walks over to the
door.

"I dunno," I shrug. "Who cares? Are you happy?"

"Yeah, of course. You really think I'd be doing this if I wasn't?"

"Well then it doesn't matter how fast or slow it is. Just matters if you're
happy. And you are, and I am, so why stop?"

"Point well taken. Now lets get out of here. We'll come back for your stuff
later."

"What about the cash?"

"What about it? It's been sitting there for months. I don't think it'll
suddenly disappear in a few hours. So lets go and then I can have you all to
myself again."

"Demanding aren't you?" I joke, as she takes my hand, pulling me out into
the unknown once more. But at least I know I'd have it no other way. This
reality isn't so bad, after all.

TBC...