InsaneJournal

Who: Faith and Pike
Where: The bus station.
What: Pike tries to get through to Faith.
When: Early morning.
Ratings: NC-17.
Status: Complete

Typing up the message on the boards didn’t take long. He thought about including Buffy on the list, but honestly wasn’t sure if she’d care and didn’t have time to sit there debating it. Andrea, Clark, and Ruby had been the most helpful and interested the whole time, so they were three he let know. Once that was done, he threw on his coat, checked a map of Lawrence quickly on his phone, and then made a beeline for the bus station.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to say to her when he got there. The fear of screwing things up nagged at the back of his mind, but now that he knew where she was, a strange sort of calm had come over him. No time for doubts now. Whatever he was going to do, he needed to get it done before her bus left. Otherwise he’d have to start over in whatever town or city she ended up in. If it came to that, he would do it in a heartbeat, but he would really prefer not to.

He smoked a single cigarette on the way, to keep his nerves in control. Part of him was preparing for the worst. Faith had been trying to push him away when he didn’t even know where she was. Now that he would be staring her in the face, he had a feeling things would get even more intense. He had to keep his cool and steel his resolve for anything that might happen here. The cig helped him do that. He finished it just as he neared the bus station, and tossed the used butt into a trashcan as he passed it by.

The doors didn’t even slow him down. He just shoved through them, took a few steps in, and looked around the station. When he couldn’t immediately spot her, he considered looking, but decided he didn’t want to risk wasting time. So instead he strode purposefully up to the ticket counter and cut in front of the line, currently four people deep. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, the people behind him started snapping.

Pike turned, and fixed them with a glare that would have vaporized them all if looks could kill. It helped that the shiner on his chin, while faded, was still pretty visible and the cut above his left eyebrow was only covered by a tiny band-aid. “I’ll just be a minute,” he replied, his tone glacial. “You can wait.” Without so much as a second glance, he turned back to the ticket clerk, dropping both forearms onto the counter. “Hi. I’m looking for a girl, would’ve come in here a little bit ago.” He briefly described Faith, ignoring the clerk when he tried to speak. “She been here?”

“I really can’t-“ Pike gave the clerk an impatient glare, fished in his pocket, whipped out a $100, and dropped it onto the counter in front of the clerk. “-can’t lie to you, I did she her.” The clerk scooped up the cash and stuffed it into his pocket lightning fast. “Bought a ticket a little while ago.”

“She still here?” The clerk considered it and then nodded his head in the general direction he’d seen Faith go off in. “Good. Gimme one ticket, exact same type and destination.” Yet again, the people behind him complained, but this time Pike just ignored them. They weren’t important right now. The clerk prepared the asked for ticket, Pike forked over the cash, snatched the ticket package, and headed off in the direction the clerk had nodded. He kept his head down, and tried to stay near large groups. He was hoping to spot her before she spotted him, so he could use the element of surprise to his advantage.