aaronlisa (aaronlisa) wrote in fadeddreaming, @ 2008-11-17 23:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: faith lehane, community: 7_crossovers, fandom: buffyverse, fandom: supernatural, fandom: ten inch hero, length: 1000-5000 words, pairing: faith/dean, pairing: faith/priestly |
[ btvs/spn/tih crossover] vacation
Title: Vacation
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural/Ten Inch Hero
Pairing/Characters: Faith Lehane, Priestly, mentions of Dean Winchester
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and company, Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and company, and Ten Inch Hero belongs to David Mackay and company.
Prompts: LJ's 7_crossovers – Table #7, prompt #7 (brief)
Notes: Set post-Chosen of BTVS, post-No Rest of the Wicked of SPN, and sometime after Ten Inch Hero.
Summary: Faith goes to Santa Cruz to deal with Dean’s death.
Word Count: 1858
Santa Cruz is just a stopping place for her. Or as Giles put it her: a nice, quiet place with little to no demon or vampire activity; just the place for a Slayer to go when she needs a vacation. Typically Faith would have ignored Giles and his suggestion of a vacation but she knows that she really needs one. She’s getting sloppy in her grief and she’s no good to anyone if she’s dead.
Giles had taken the liberty of booking her a room at the Sea and Sand Inn. He had told her that her room would overlook the Pacific Ocean and perhaps that it would help to center her. She doesn’t really care about views or centering herself; all she really needs is some time to get over her grief where she’s not surrounded by Slayers or monsters.
When she walks into her room, Faith’s tempted to walk right back out and head for her car. The only thing that keeps her from leaving Santa Cruz is the fact that she knows Giles or Buffy will send someone who will force her into having this vacation, whether she wants it or not. At this point it’s easier to acquiesce to them than it is to fight them.
She sets her bag on one of the beds and heads for the bathroom to have a hot shower. As she stands under the near-scalding hot water, Faith can’t help the tears that roll down her face. It’s been a little over a month since Dean’s died and she still feels guilty that she couldn’t save him. It doesn’t matter that she found out from his tight-lipped brother that there was no way anyone could have saved Dean once he made a deal with the devil. All that matters is that it’s another failure on a long list of failures.
After her shower, she collapses on the bed wrapped in a towel and in a matter of minutes, she’s asleep.
* * *
The next morning after she’s pulled on some clothes, Faith makes her way out into the hideously bright day. She wanders around aimlessly, trying to wrap her around the fact that she’s on holiday and she doesn’t have to be constantly alert for vampires or demons or monsters. After a few hours, she ends up outside of a sandwich shop by the name of Beach City Grill.
She orders a sandwich and a coke from a waitress who seems more concerned in talking about the night before with the regulars and her co-workers than she is about taking Faith’s order. Not that Faith really cares; she’d rather be left alone than fussed over by some well-meaning waitress or even worse one who’s just trying to milk her for a tip.
Faith soon finds herself wishing that she had a book or a newspaper, something to loose herself in instead of listening to the bubbly staff chat with one another or their regulars. She knows that none of them know about the hunters or Slayers or the Watchers who protect them from evil but it still breaks her heart that a good man can be dead for over a month and there’s no one to mourn him but those who fought beside him.
She’s halfway through her sandwich, which tastes like sawdust to her, when he walks in the door. She almost chokes on the piece in her mouth until she realizes that although he may look like Dean Winchester, the guy who just walked through the door isn’t him. Not with the dyed Mohawk, the tattoos, or the piercings. Faith can’t seem to keep her eyes off of him, something that he doesn’t miss as he arches an eyebrow at her and smirks in a way that seems so familiar but isn’t.
She drops her gaze to the Formica table top and tries to think about anything other than the guy who looks like Dean. And she’s almost successful until he slides in the seat across from her. Her throat constricts as she looks at him and for a moment she’s afraid that she’ll do something embarrassing.
“I take it you’re new to town?”
“Just visiting,” Faith answers, relieved that her voice sounds normal.
“Then you should let me take you around the sites when I get off work.”
“I’m only in town for a couple of days,” Faith tells him.
Despite the hair, the tattoos and the piercings, he looks so much like Dean when she delivers her rejection that she feels guilty. He’s about to slide out of the seat and out of her life when she knows that she can’t let that happen.
“What time do you get off?”
He turns back to her with a smile and makes arrangements to meet her in front of the restaurant later that afternoon.
* * *
Faith makes her way back to her motel, his name echoing around her head along with Dean’s. Priestly. Dean. Dean could have been Priestly in another life, if fate hadn’t been so cruel to him. Just like Priestly could have been Dean had fate dealt him another hand, and it hurts her head to keep thinking about it so she stops.
Instead she takes another shower and ends up watching early afternoon television and finds herself wondering what would have happened to her had she not been a Slayer. It’s not a train of thought that she indulges in often. She blames it on Priestly and how he looks so much like Dean.
* * *
Priestly reminds her of Dean and she can’t help but wonder as he takes her around Santa Cruz if Dean would have been like Priestly if he had never become a hunter. She tries to picture Dean completely carefree and light-hearted and she keeps failing. Faith can’t imagine Dean being anything else than a hunter just like she can’t imagine herself being anything other than the Slayer.
Faith finds herself enjoying his company and for a brief moment she wishes that she could stay longer than the short stay that she had agreed to. She genuinely likes Priestly, especially when he makes her laugh. When the afternoon fades into night, she finds it hard to not peer into every shadow looking to see if a monster is hidden within the gloom.
She can tell that Priestly has noticed her distraction but clearly doesn’t know what to make of it. It’s in that moment that she knows that she’s just fooling herself. She might like the fact that he makes her laugh, but the biggest drawing power that he has is the fact that he looks just like her dead lover underneath the hair, the tattoos and the piercings.
“I had a nice time,” Faith says as she turns to face him.
“But,” Priestly says with a rueful smile.
“I should be getting back to my hotel.”
“So early?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t convince you to stay out a bit later?”
“I’d love to, but I’m expecting a call from my boss.”
The lie flows off her tongue easily and Priestly just shrugs at her. She doesn’t really need to listen to him to know what he’s saying. Faith’s heard it a thousand times before from her own mouth and from other’s.
* * *
Faith discovers that nighttime television is just as boring as daytime television is. She turns the TV off with an annoyed sigh and wonders if one day of supposed relaxation will be enough for Giles and the Council. She finds herself staring at the white ceiling and trying to will away the hours before she can leave Santa Cruz and Priestly, her very own Dean-look alike.
She leaves the motel sometime after one in the morning, after having spent the last three hours attempting to sleep. Too many late nights with a stake in her hand as she patrolled cemeteries have left her unable to sleep until dawn is just starting to paint the night sky in shades of gold and rose. Faith quietly walks the streets until she find herself at the deserted boardwalk amusement park that Priestly had taken her earlier.
It’s the perfect place for monsters and vampires and she’s disappointed to find that Giles was right when he told her that Santa Cruz was devoid of vampires and demons and everything else that goes bump in the night. It doesn’t stop her from wandering the place; it’s quiet and peaceful more than some view of the Pacific Ocean could ever be.
When she comes across Priestly, she’s not surprised. He falls into step beside her and it seems natural to be walking with him.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Priestly asks her.
“No, what about you?”
“Did you know that they filmed The Lost Boys here?”
“Really?” Faith asks.
“Yeah, I used to come out here after I saw the movie the first time, hoping I’d find a vampire. Stupid, uh?”
Faith’s not sure how she should answer that last question. The Slayer in her knows how stupid that is but she knows from her own childhood, she probably would have done the same thing.
“Not really,” Faith responds.
“Do you think if vampires actually existed, they’d come to a place like this?”
“Nah it’s too tacky for them,” Faith instantly responds.
“Vampires are concerned with being tacky?”
“Some are,” Faith honestly tells him.
Priestly laughs before he slings his arm around her shoulders.
“So why would Santa Cruz be too tacky for vampires?”
“Because every vampire wannabe probably hung out here back in the day, looking for someone like David to bite them.”
“You’d think they’d like the easy pickings.”
“Some of them probably would but most have too much taste for that.”
“So hypothetically speaking where do vampires like to hang out?”
“Hypothetically speaking?” Faith asks, “It depends on the vamp.”
They end up sitting on a bench facing the deserted and silent fairway. Faith likes the place better at night with no one there than it was earlier when Priestly took her. She wants to tell him about Dean, even about whom she really is, but she knows that she can’t do that. Priestly belongs to the sunshine, the ocean and everything about Santa Cruz that she secretly despises.
“You’re not like other girls are you, Faith?”
“Not really,” Faith tells him honestly.
“So if I were to ask you to stay the night with me, that’d be it, wouldn’t it.”
“Yeah.”
“You shouldn’t be alone, Faith, stay the rest of your vacation with me?” Priestly asks her before he cups her face in his hands and kisses her.
She leans into him and for a brief moment, there’s only Priestly, herself and the moonlight. Everything else fades away into nothingness and she desperately wishes that she could stay and have a normal life with him. When he pulls back, with a shy smile on his face, Faith knows that she’ll stay even if it does break her heart.
“Yes,” Faith tells him.
He smiles at her and she no longer sees Dean in him. And she’s glad that Giles sent her to Santa Cruz.
**END**