Faith and Buffy covered the perimeter of the old ball park.  The only choice they now had was to work their way inward and hope that they’d find something before something found them.

“April 20, 1912?  Opening Day?” Faith asked.  “Damn.  This place is beyond ancient.”

“They took almost everything else outta here, surprised they left a plaque,” Buffy said. 

“They left some signs too,” Faith said.  She started laughing.  “Like that one.”  She pointed over Buffy’s shoulder.  “‘Visitor’s Clubhouse – No Visitors Allowed.’  They might’ve sucked, but at least they had a sense of humor.”

Buffy stopped suddenly, Faith almost bumped into her.  “Did you see Titanic, the movie?”  she asked.

“B, that falls into sappy shit.  Didn’t see it.  Not like I needed to.  Hit an iceberg.  Ship sank.  People died.  Not much more to it than that.”

“Didn’t it sink in April, 1912?”

Faith started walking again.  “How would I know that?” Faith snorted.  “Who knows?  I guess we could have Giles cross reference it or something.  If there’s anything to find, he’s the guy,” Faith said offhandedly.  “You thinkin’ an entire ‘April, 1912 jinx’ or something?”

Buffy laughed. 

“What?” Faith demanded.

“You just said ‘cross reference’.”

“Repeat it and I’ll kill ya.”

“What is this place?”  Buffy asked, changing the subject.

Faith followed Buffy into another room.  “Don’t know.  Looks like a room right out of The Shining though.  Now that’s a movie.”

The room had a disgustingly dirty, white dropdown ceiling that was missing tiles.  Faith suspected that back in the day, the tiles probably were as white as teeth on a toothpaste commercial, but now… not even close.  The walls were painted a bright pumpkin orange, one of the colors of the team that used to inhabit this place, but it had begun chipping off in places years ago.  There was a bar made out of oak on the farthest wall

Faith walked over to it.  “Too bad it’s not stocked.  I could go for a beer.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”  Faith shrugged.  “Never was into sports… sports guys maybe, but not sports.  Never been inside an actual stadium until now.  Look at this place.  You can feel it, what it used to be like.  Families heading out to a baseball game, souvenirs, dads getting blitzed on overpriced beer, the drunken fights in the stands,” Faith swept her arm around, “Now look at it, tossed away like a used…”

“I get it!” Buffy said quickly.  “No need to finish that sentence.”

“Xander said that it used to be a single decked stadium, and like twenty years after they built it, they made it a double-decker.  Why didn’t they just make it double-decked in the first place?”

“Be easier to search if it only had one deck,” Buffy added, sounding tired.  “No way we can search this entire place by ourselves.”

“Looks worse than it is, B.  You can pretty much eliminate the stands.  No one calls them home.  Not shady enough.

“Maybe not during the day,” Buffy said.  “Just because they can’t hang around twenty-four/seven doesn’t mean they’re not there at night.  Faith don’t you realize that we could have… what did you say this stadium holds?”

Faith wasn’t quite sure.  “I don’t know.  Over twenty-thousand?  Or was that before they doubled-decked it?  I can’t remember.”

Buffy continued, “We could have twenty thousand or more, of them sitting out there right now, waiting for their virgin to sacrifice.”

“Like a virgin is just gonna walk into the place?  Besides, we checked out the catwalks leading to the bleachers.  Didn’t look like anyone has been up there in awhile.  You can see a lot of the stadium from there.”

“How about those cagey things we saw on the field?” Buffy asked.

“The bullpens?” 

“Again,” Buffy said.  “How do you know they’re bullpens?”

Faith smiled.  “Xander got bored one day and hopped on Red’s computer.  He searched the Internet looking for anything he could find about this place.  Only reason I remembered what they’re called is because I went into this whole cage thing... Let’s just say it’s not something he’ll forget anytime soon,” Faith said.  “So what do you want to do now?” 

“We’ve been here for hours,” she said.  “We can either hang out here for a little while to see if anything happens…”

“Or go back and talk to Giles,” Faith finished for her. 

“He’s the guy,” Buffy agreed.

XXXXX

Getting away from Tiger Stadium hadn’t been as easy as getting into it.  Nighttime had fallen over the Motor City.  Faith and Buffy had dispatched their fair share of the undead-uglies before they made their way back to Faith’s car.

“I’m hungry,” Faith said as she opened the door.  She had seen a bar on their way downtown and she had a wicked craving for a bar burger.  There was just something about them being all big and greasy.

“Isn’t it kind of late?” Buffy asked.

“Nope.  Bars are open until at least 2:00 o’clock.  No way it can be that late already.”

“I am kind of hungry,” Buffy admitted.

The bar Faith had eyeballed was pretty close to the house where they were staying, far away from downtown.  That was one of the reasons she picked it.  Figured it would give Buffy less to object to if they were close to home.

Faith was surprised to see that it wasn’t all that busy.  “That’s what you get for barring in the ‘burbs.”

“What?”

“There’s nobody here.”

“It’s late.  All the ‘burbettes are at home in bed.”

Faith walked straight to the bar and hoisted herself up on a stool.  “Too late to order a burger?” she asked the bartender.

“For two beautiful women on a Wednesday, it’s never too late.  With everything?” Faith glanced at Buffy quickly and then nodded to him.  “I’ll be right back,” he said.

“Gotta loved the ‘burbs,” she said to Buffy who sat down next to her.

“You are so flirting with the bartender,” Buffy said.

“It got us a burger didn’t it?”

Didn’t take long for the burgers and fries to show up.  “Thank God,” Faith said as her dinner was placed in front of her.

“Good idea,” Buffy said, taking another bite of hers.  “This is mighty tasty.”

“Told you,” Faith said, picking up her beer and taking a nice long swallow of it.  “This makes it taste better.  You should’ve ordered one.”

Faith saw Buffy physically shudder.  “Beer and me?  Let’s just say we don’t get along.”

“What happened?  Wake up naked in some guy’s bed or something?”

“Worse.”

“For you?  How could anything be worse than that?”

XXXXX

“Cavemen? No shit!” Faith exclaimed.

“Ever since, beer is so bad.  I can’t even stand the smell,” Buffy said, with one final shudder.

Faith smiled.  “I could see how that could happen.”  And then she watched as Buffy’s smile slowly disintegrated and she started fiddling with her napkin.

“What?” Faith finally asked her.

“What?  What?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me.  Now what?”

“Not sure now’s the time.”

Faith looked around the bar.  They were the only ones left and the bartender was busy watching ESPN.  “B, this is about as good as it’s going to get.”

Buffy heaved a sigh.  “I talked to Dawn.  She told me what happened.  Not that she needed to, the house isn’t that big.”

“Wonderful,” Faith said, downing the rest of her beer and suddenly wishing she had a smoke. 

“She’s really upset.”

“You think?”

“The relationship between Spike and me, it was complicated.  Throw Dawn into the mix and… well, it gets even more complicated.”

“B, we’ve been through all of this.  Why does everyone around here insist on bringing up stuff that’s over and done with?”  Faith briefly flashed on the discussion she and Giles had had when they first got to the city. “Another beer,” she called out to the bartender, then catching his quick glance at the clock, added, “Don’t worry, it’ll be the last.  You gotta smoke I can bum by any chance?”

Five minutes later, Faith was drinking another beer and enjoying the cigarette he had given her.

“Just because I’m okay with it,” Buffy continued.  Faith thought she saw a flicker of something pass across Buffy’s face, but Buffy continued talking, “It doesn’t mean Dawn is okay with it.  It might take her awhile to deal.  Can you maybe give her time to do that?”

“What did I do?  I haven’t done anything but avoid her.  She needs to let up on Spike a little bit though.  He’s a little more involved with the entire,” Faith used air quotation marks, “`feelings thing’.  I don’t give a shit.  Give a shit and it ends up biting you in the ass.  My ass has been bitten one time too many as it is.  Don’t need anymore scars.”  There it was again, that fleeting moment of something crossing Buffy’s face.  “Is there something you’re not saying?”

“Faith, some people are more sensitive to things than you are.  I’m not asking for a lot.  I’m not requesting you to get your ass bit.  I’m just asking for you to tread lightly around Dawn.  I will talk to Dawn.  Maybe we can handle it a little bit from both sides, that way we won’t need to worry about some huge fight breaking out between us when no one’s ready for it.  We have enough battles in our lives; we don’t need to be fighting amongst ourselves on top of it.” 

“Fine.  Yes.  Whatever,” Faith said.

Buffy stood up.  “Are you ready to go?    I know I am.”

Snagging another smoke before they left, Faith said, “Let’s go.”

XXXXX

Buffy and Faith walked into the house quietly.  They decided after their little snack they should patrol for awhile, now it was close to sunrise, and they didn’t want to chance waking anyone.

Buffy watched as Faith smiled when she saw Spike crashed out in a chair.  Emma and Dawn were sleeping on opposite ends of the couch, Andrew was sleeping on the floor and snow had taken over the television screen.

Faith glanced at Buffy and shook her head.  “And we thought we had a long night.”

In more ways than one, Buffy thought, but said, “No kidding.  Do we wake ‘em or leave ‘em?”

“Not sure what you’re doing,” Faith whispered, walking over to Spike.  “I’m going to get some sleep.”

Faith whispered quietly in his ear, Buffy’s slayer hearing couldn’t quite pick up what she said, but Spike opened his eyes slowly, his mouth spreading into a wide grin.  “’Fraid I might get a fiery wake-up, eh?” he said, indicating the wide open curtains.  “No worries, love.  Vampire alarm would’ve gone off long before that would happen.  Like the concern, though.”

Faith smiled and shook her head.  “Try getting up without waking everyone else up.”   She looked at Buffy.  “Tell Giles we’ll talk later.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said, quietly.

“See ya.”

Like the concern though.

Buffy tried not to watch as the two of them made their way out of the room and downstairs.  She tried to ignore the gnawing feeling that began to take root in the pit of her stomach.

“Probably the burger,” she said, not sure who she was trying to convince.

XXXXX

“How’d it go?” Spike asked as Faith peeled off her jeans and shirt, tossing them to the floor.  “Find anything?”

“Besides a kick-ass burger, a couple beers and a smoke or two?” she said, smiling.  “Or did you mean an abandoned baseball stadium that seems to be home to our latest and greatest hellmouth?” she said, climbing onto the futon and pulling the blankets up to her waist.  “No doubt we found it.  We just gotta find the seal and figure out what happens next.”

Faith rolled onto her side and looked at Spike.  “Anything interesting happen here?”

Spike ditched his own outerwear and joined Faith.  “Besides the kiddies wanting to sneak out of the house for some sightseeing?”

“You’re kidding me?”

“Bit’s idea.  Be proud, Junior You tried to talk her out of it,” he said, pulling Faith into his arms, her head now resting partially on his shoulder.

Faith yawned.  “I’m proud.  B will be pissed,” she said, her eyes slowly fluttering closed.  She barely felt Spike’s lips on hers as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

XXXXX

“I’m drowning in footwear!”

Spike’s shout roused Faith from a deep sleep.  “What?”  She rolled over and saw that he was still sleeping, so she gave him a quick shove to wake him up.

“Hm?” he said, rolling toward her, his eyes opening slowly.  “Somethin’ wrong?”

“You’re drowning in footwear?  Is that some weird fetish I don’t know about?” she asked.

“Drowning in footwear?”

“That’s what you shouted out in your sleep.  Don’t look at me weird, you’re the one who said it.”

“Don’t remember,” he said, stretching.  “You sure that’s what I said?”

“Who knows,” Faith said, she sat up.  “I was asleep.  Could’ve been anything.  And besides, I was too busy dreaming about bright lights and rooms where I can’t actually see anyone.  Me and B lurking about.  I’ve got my own problems,” she said, trying to swing her legs off the side of the futon, but had a better thought instead.

Faith found herself straddling Spike’s hips.  “You know, it’s kinda quiet upstairs and if we really, really tried, I think we can be kinda quiet down here,” she said, grinding herself into him lightly.  “What do you think?  Got it in ya?”

“‘Spect we can do something along those lines… can’t guarantee the quiet,” he said, the teasing tone leaching out of his voice, the husky sound of sexuality taking over.

“That’s not our problem,” she said.

XXXXX