wonderalice! i am SO glad you went for it and wrote the alternate. i finally got around to reading these first 5 chapters and i have to say, much like the godfather movies, your sequel could possibly be better than flowers. no actually, scratch that. i loved flowers so much. it was incredibly well written. i think i'm just more intrigued to see the story pan out from this flip side. a faith that needs redemption is just always too tempting for whatever reason. and when you add a buffy with no hang ups or stick up her ass, then that makes for a really exciting story! what i will say is that you have the tragedy down just right. in both stories. it's all so gutting! i hope all four versions of the girls can find lasting love all over again, but it still hurts to think about what they've lost. and you really convey that so well. i was a bit shocked to get thrown forward 2 years in to the future, but it was a clever way for you to show that this buffy is stuck there long term, is dealing with it in a way, but ultimately is still horribly unhappy without faith. and if you'd thrown them together too quickly it would have been unrealistic and faith would have never felt like buffy loved her for HER. this is a bit of a babbling shit show so i'll wrap it up. can't wait for friday! can you get alerts from this site? 

LOVE!