Faith was in a cold dark hole, alone in pitch blackness. She was shivering and cold but she couldn’t move or cry for help. Something had gone terribly wrong. The claustrophobic feeling of being caught in her own trap hung around her like a fog as she gradually regained consciousness. It was the smell that brought her the first realisation of where she actually was. In a hospital. Unmistakably, the odour of urine mixed with disinfectant flowed freely into the slayer’s nostrils, bringing her sharply back to her senses. But she was actually grateful that the stink of the hospital had woken her up. At least it took away the nightmare, and the fear that she was going to be buried alive.

Faith opened her eyes, which confirmed what her nose had already told her. The harsh fluorescent light of a hospital room greeted her. The slayer was drowsy and confused. Why hadn’t they just killed her? The last thing Faith remembered was being pounced upon by geek boy and Giles. And then that doctor had drugged her. She’d tried to stop them, but couldn’t. Why not? The slayer closed her eyes again and tried to replay what had happened. She remembered Buffy crying out, pinned to the floor in the doorway by Angel. Her ears echoed again with the screams of the other slayer, and everything came flooding back to Faith. She had punched the doctor, as hard as she could. But the earlier damage done to her arm meant that it had been too little too late. The dark-haired slayer tried to move the fingers of her left arm. She couldn’t feel them at all. No pain, nothing. No sensation at all. The slayer was suddenly filled with fear. What the fuck had they done to her arm? Faith opened her eyes again and looked down, very relieved to see that it hadn’t been amputated while she had been conveniently unconscious. Just as fucking well. What the hell kind of use would a one armed slayer be?

The anaesthetic was gradually wearing off and Faith was now starting to feel a slight tingling in her arm, much to her relief. It was embedded in a huge cast. That was going to have to go ASAP. And she now realised that she could feel something foreign inside the arm itself. Puzzled, the slayer tried to lift it to figure out what they’d done to her, but was amazed to find that she couldn’t. She could not move the bastard thing at all. Surely her arm wasn’t that weak. Faith sat up a little dizzily and looked closely at her arm. It was almost welded to the fucking hospital bed. Which seemed to answer the question of how she’d gotten to hospital. She was betting that someone other than helpful passers-by and friendly paramedics had provided her means of transport. The watchers had finally gotten their hands on her, this imprisonment was virtually trademark Council stuff. The cast covered almost her whole arm. They’d set three thick iron rings into the plaster and attached each of them to a thick chain, which was wrapped tightly around the metal frame of the bed before being attached to another huge ring in the floor. What the fuck kind of hospital was this anyway? Regarding the restraint carefully Faith estimated that it would take her all of about two minutes to get out of here. And she would do it as well. No way was the slayer going to hang around here waiting for the Council to try and cure her. She had to go get her girl. But the heavy feeling enveloped Faith again. Just five more minutes sleep, then she’d go rescue Buffy.

******

Willow sat uncomfortably upright in the front seat, watching the roadkill flash by in the growing light of the early dawn. Trying desperately not to think, and failing. She hated that they’d had to come in the van. It was the van now. No one owned it. Its owner was dead. And it was all Faith’s fault. Willow somehow became even more tense and shuddered slightly, attracting Giles’ attention. He looked over at her for a split second before returning his eyes to the road.

"Willow, are you all right?" The Englishman spoke quietly and gently, genuinely concerned, but the witch blew him off.

"I’m fine. Just a little tired." She turned her head to look out the side window.

"And I think you’re forgetting to add hungry." Xander lent over from the back seat where he and Maggie were sitting with a petulant slayer wedged between them. "Some of us have stomachs which need filling, right Buff?" Willow didn’t hear the slayer’s reply very clearly but she got the distinct impression that Xander was being informed where exactly he could stick his breakfast. The red-haired girl closed her eyes in a futile attempt to keep out the pain.

The van fell back into an uncomfortable silence. It was all Faith’s fault. That much she knew in her heart and her bones. She couldn’t believe that the Council was going to let the psychopathic girl live. Despite her desperate attempts to stop it, her brain flashed over the events of the past fortnight. Making her relive them over and over. This wouldn’t be the last time. Willow couldn’t believe such a short time ago things had been fine. Now her whole world had fallen apart. And ever since she’d seen Buffy and Faith embracing on that couch she’d known that there was no way to put it back together again. Till then she’d had some hope that things could change. That finding Buffy would make it all better. Now, somehow, she felt even worse. Willow tried to remember whose fault it was. Who had let Faith get away with doing what she had done. But there was no one person she could blame for that. They were all equally responsible for letting Buffy down. But no one was paying for it more than her.

Willow had tried her best. She’d worked hard, looking for ways to locate Buffy while the guys went off searching for the slayers. The young witch had known that their search would be fruitless. Like trying to find a seashell in the desert. Faith was too cunning to hang around someplace easy to find. It was going to take something special to find Buffy, which had left things up to Willow. And she’d done her best. With the inadequate magic resources of the school library and some trawling of the Internet, Willow had come up with some spells they could try out. Including a spell to link memory to cherished objects given as gifts. She’d called back Angel and the others and cast the spell over the cross he had given Buffy so long ago. They’d also tried to contact Buffy through a channelling spell Cordelia had helpfully found in one of her magazines. That was pretty much an accurate indication of their desperation. They’d had to do something, but there was precious little they could find which didn’t require the co-operation of the searched-for party. The heart-broken vampire had left again soon after, but Giles and Xander had stayed. There was too much to be done in Sunnydale now that the slayer was gone.

But it hadn’t helped. The guys, and even occasionally Cordelia, had taken up patrols, without much success. Things were surprisingly quiet on the Hellmouth, which had made Giles somewhat nervous but relieved everyone else. The watchers didn’t take long to arrive, setting up base in Wesley’s apartment block and demanding all the information they had on both the slayers. Giles had pig-headedly refused to co-operate initially, until Willow’s pleas had convinced him that the resources of the Council were essential. By this stage they were all realising that it was unlikely that Buffy was going to wander back into their lives any time soon. For the first time they feared that maybe they really had lost her forever. They needed to do more and they needed the Council’s help. There was no sign that Willow’s spells had even been successfully cast, so the young witch had been forced back to the books again. It was a hopeless task, really but there had been nothing else for the red-haired girl to do. She’d given up going to school, spending almost every day shut up with the Council’s experts in a desperate search for the spell that would bring her best friend home. And every night she continued her research at home, getting by on just a couple of hours sleep. Which is why she had acted without much in the way of thought when Anya had knocked on her door one night and asked for help.

Willow began to cry now. She kept her head steadfastly turned to look out the window, not seeing anything but desperately avoiding looking at the interior of the van. It hurt too much. But, as if to torture herself, the redhead’s mind forced her to relive her murderous mistake again. The plea for help in finding a lost necklace. Her distracted agreement to assist. If only to reassure herself that she could actually do things, a fact which the exhausted and downhearted witch had been seriously beginning to doubt. What’s more, Anya had been in the same position as herself, really. Looking for something lost. If they were able to retrieve the necklace maybe they could do something similar to bring Buffy home. Willow hadn’t really believed that they had the power to transport people through temporal folds, but she had been willing to try anything. And then, there in her bedroom, it had all gone wrong. The horrific flash of that other world. The terrible feeling of her soul being sucked out of her body and escaping. The brief glimpse of almost everyone she loved either dead or dying. With a supreme physical and mental effort Willow had fought the shifting and uncertain boundaries of time and forced herself out of that nightmare world. She knew what it was. The world without the slayer. What her world would be without Buffy. And, whoever this Anya was, she had been trying to help bring it about. Willow had thought that by pulling out of the spell she had been able to stop this nightmare ever coming true. She didn’t know then that she’d already helped destroy what was left of her own happiness.

Willow hadn’t seen him until the next night. Xander had brought news that a whole lot of people were missing from school. About 50 kids hadn’t made it home from the Bronze the night before. Willow had felt ill. She had though that the blood of fifty more people was on Faith’s hands. But now she knew that was wrong. She knew that her own hands were just as dirty. Later that day they had all gone to the night-club to check it out. And had barely managed to escape with their lives. They had arrived just before sunset, intending to go patrolling afterwards. The Bronze had been shut but Giles and Xander had managed to break open the door and they had gone in. Willow wished desperately that she hadn’t, that she had stayed outside with Cordelia. She knew that she would never forget the scene inside. It seemed like there were bodies everywhere, left lying where they had fallen. But there had been nowhere near fifty of them. Twenty at the most. At first she had looked at this as something of a positive before she had realised why. And saw who was to blame.

Willow stoodon the stage, smiling down at them. But it wasn’t her, it was a vampire with her face. And she had already set to work transforming this world into the nightmare the young witch had had a terrifying glimpse of the day before. There was what seemed like a whole army of vampires gathered there in the dark. The vampire Willow hadn’t said a word to them, as they backed hurried back into the safety of the rapidly fading light of day. She had just grinned and stroked the midnight blue hair of the male vampire standing next to her. They had gotten out of the Bronze as quickly as possible, grabbed the confused Cordelia and driven back to library in silence. Willow had been completely unable to speak. She had almost been completely unable to function. Because she’d killed Oz. And Devon and Percy and all the others, just as surely as if she’d sunk the fangs into them herself. Which in a way she had. Willow and Anya’s spell had worked. It had brought something back from the Hell World. Unfortunately, that something was a terrible monster with Willow’s face and Sunnydale was never going to be the same again.

"We’re here." The van pulled to a stop outside Buffy’s house. The others must have decided that that was the best place to keep her. Willow hadn’t really been paying attention. She hadn’t been paying attention to much at all ever since Oz had turned up on her doorstep later that first night, pale and panting. Demanding to be invited in. Demanding for her to join him in eternal life.

"Willow, you’d better come inside with us." Giles laid a gentle hand on her arm and the young redhead realised that she was shaking violently.

"What’s with her? Anyone would think she’s just seen someone she loved beaten up and left for dead by her supposed friends." Buffy’s voice was full of self-pity and a hatred that Willow had never heard before. She couldn’t take it any more. Buffy was way out of line. The young witch didn’t care what the slayer had been through. It was time that she stopped all this shit about loving Faith and had a lesson in reality. She turned around to glare at Buffy, letting the tears flow freely down her face and not bothering to try and control the anger in her voice.

"No, I’ve just had my boyfriend and most people I know killed and turned into vampires because you were too busy joyriding around the country to stop it." Buffy’s hard sneer softened slowly. Willow had hit her best friend in the place she knew always hurt the most. The blonde slayer hated it when she failed in her duty to protect the innocent.

Willow went on, still not satisfied that she’d reallyreached Buffy. "And I know you’ve been through a lot, but you haven’t even asked what’s been happening here. This is the Hellmouth, you know, and because you’ve neglected your duties here the whole world is probably in danger. But as long as you had a nice little holiday being Faith’s latest sex toy." Buffy was frozen in a look of genuine shock. Willow had built up quite a head of steam and would have continued her attack if not for the interruption of the watcher.

"Willow! That’s quite enough. Let’s get Buffy settled in at home and we’ll talk about all this tomorrow."

"No." Both the witch and the watcher were surprised by the determination in Buffy’s voice. "No, she’s right. I have to hear this. What’s been going on?"

******

The door of the room opened quietly and Faith woke up instantly. The guy who came in was vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite place him. Except for the rather obvious fact that he was a watcher. Faith tried to sit up, only to discover that her good arm was now also restrained. There was an IV strapped tightly to her right arm, feeding its poison into her veins. The slayer began to boil with rage. "I shouldn’t waste my energy if I were in your position. This is a totally secure ward, crawling with Council representatives. You can’t even roll over in that bed without us knowing about it." The watcher moved slowly towards the bed and looked at her with an annoyingly superior grin. It was that doofus she’d beaten up way back when, in the middle of nowhere. Too bad she’d hadn’t left him there to die on the side of the road.

"I’d say that your luck’s just about run out, slayer."

Faith, who was in asupright a position as possible, growled at him. "You fucking bastard, you think this can hold me? The whole Council is fucking deranged, not me. Just give me five minutes and I’m gonna kick all your asses right back to the old country."

The watcher, who was still standing a safe distance from the drowsy but pissed off slayer, took off his glasses and began to clean them. Smirking at her as he did so.

"Oh, really. Well I’d like to see you try to take on the entire Watcher’s Council of Britain. Particularly now that you don’t have a competent, not to mention sane, slayer to assist you." Faith threw her weight forward, managing to move the bed a few inches and to get the young watcher to take a rather nervous backwards step.

"Charles! What are you doing, man?" Another fucking watcher appeared at the door. So the place really was crawling with them. Maybe they were going to try and English her to death. Sure sounded like a painful and boring way to die. This new watcher was a lot larger than the first guy, which wasn’t really saying much. But this new guy was built, there was no denying that. He glanced down the hall to check that no one else had heard Faith’s outburst before lowering his voice to a whisper and coming into the room. "You know there’s strict orders that no one is to come in here until the medical staff have cleared her for counselling. Come on, let’s go before anyone catches us."

"For such a big, butch guy you sure are a girl", Faith commented sarcastically. She was sitting calmly on the bed now, regarding the newcomer with interest. He wasn’t a run of the mill watcher. She figured that maybe he was someone she could work with. "Charles and I are old buddies, he just popped by to remind me of old times, didn’t you Chucky boy? Like how I made sure that the world will never have to endure a Charles junior." Faith pulled out her most wicked grin, happy at both the memory and the response it got out of the young watcher. He sneered at her and clenched his fists. Sadly, he wasn’t stupid enough to move closer.

"There’s no point in threatening me now. You’re entirely under Council control. You will learn to perform your sacred duties in the proper manner, even if we have to teach you the hard way." Faith’s eyes opened wide in mock fear. Seriously, the guy sounded like he expected her to repent and walk the path of holiness, as defined by a whole lot of English wankers. The big watcher was still standing uncertainly by the door, playing look out. Faith was bored with the whole thing.

"Look, Chuck and...I don’t believe that we’ve been properly introduced." The newcomer looked at her uncertainly for a few moments before shifting uncomfortably and answering.

"Miles."

"Okay then, Chuck and Miles. Can I give you some advice? When you’re trying to run a good cop, bad cop routine the aim is not to get me to fall asleep. So be good boys and piss off now before I let rip with a scream that’ll get you guys sent to your room for a week." The rather nervous looking Miles agreed with the slayer’s suggestion.

"Come on, Charles. Let’s just go tell them that we thought we heard her moving." Charles spared her another sneer, which was returned enthusiastically, before he and Miles finally left her in peace. Faith sighed with the relief of no longer having to deal with them before letting her head fall back onto the pillow. The young slayer could barely keep her eyes open. She was going to need a lot of rest before she’d be any use to Buffy.

******

Buffy wandered numbly into her bedroom and shut the door firmly behind her. She absently drifted over to her dressing table and ran her fingers over the neat arrangement of objects. Her things, although they had never ever been so carefully ordered before. She recognised them as her own but didn’t respond to that information on anything but a factual level. Her mind was too busy digesting what Giles and the others had told her to think about anything else right now. Slowly, she walked across the room to her window. The slayer badly needed some fresh air. She’d felt like she was being slowly suffocated just by being in this house. Or maybe it wasn’t the house. Maybe it was the whole town and all the people in it. Maybe it was just the feeling of living life as a slayer. It was certainly a familiar burden. Buffy grabbed the window sill and pushed gently upwards with two fingers. She was bewildered when it didn’t fly up under even that slight pressure. Normally she had trouble keeping the windows in one piece, not getting them open. The blonde slayer pulled aside the light curtains and registered what the problem was. They’d nailed the window shut. It would be useless at keeping the slayer in, if she had really wanted to get out. But as a symbolic gesture it was incredibly powerful. It was very clear to Buffy that she was not to be trusted.

The exhausted slayer took this message to heart. It was true. She had let them down badly. Buffy threw herself face down on the bed and tried to digest all that she had learned that morning. Oz was dead. There was a vampire who looked exactly like Willow. The mayor was working with her on something big. Buffy had let Sunnydale down. That last part was really all that she could focus on right now. The details of everything that had happened while she had been gone had largely passed her by. She could be filled in on them later. The bitter fact that it was her fault, that she had failed them, overshadowed almost everything else. It was her job to keep the people of Sunnydale alive, against all that the Hellmouth could throw at her. And she’d abandoned them.

But amidst all the self-loathing Buffy was still angry. And aching with worry about the fate of her fellow slayer. Why had they done that to Faith? Surely they needed all the help they could get now. Surely they could have just come and told the two of them what was happening. There was no way that she and Faith would have refused to help. The blonde slayer started to cry for the first time since she had been put in Oz’s van. She missed Faith. All she wanted was to feel the incredible security of the dark-haired slayer’s arms around her. Then Buffy wouldn’t be confused anymore.

Faith would know how tofix all this. But Faith wasn’t here. The slayer was alone, and she didn’t know how to even begin setting things right. Buffy didn’t sob into her pillow for too long. She was too exhausted even to keep up the despair for any length of time. Buffy knew now that she had been right not to want her memory back. Who needed all this pain? All this responsibility, which filled her head until she could no longer lift it? But at the same time she was glad that she knew everything now. Glad that she could do something to try and make things better again. Contradictory thoughts raced through the slayer’s head until she was sure that it would explode.

The door of her bedroom opened but Buffy didn’t bother to look up. Whoever it was had just come to torture her more, she was sure. The slayer honestly believed that she couldn’t handle looking at her friends’ drawn faces one more time. Let alone endure any more of her mother’s smothering, yet somehow cold, attention.

"Buffy. Can I come in?" It was Maggie. Buffy rolled over onto her side and looked at the brunette doctor.

"I really just need to be alone right now." Maggie didn’t take no for an answer and came in anyway,shutting the door behind her.

"I know that’s what you think, but it’s not such a good idea." Great. Just what Buffy needed. To talk out her feelings with someone who wouldn’t even come close to understanding. Maggie sat on the corner of the bed and placed a hand on the reclining slayer’s calf. Buffy jerked her leg out of range and sat up quickly.

"I’m really not in the mood for confessional at the moment. And if you touch me again I won’t promise to be responsible for my actions." Maggie held up her hands to indicate that there wouldn’t be any further intrusions on the slayer’s personal space.

"I bet you could do me some serious damage, too."

Buffy shrugged and looked down at her hands. She felt ashamed at herself for threatening Maggie, but justified. Couldn’t they just leave her alone for five seconds? The slayer had been saddled with so much to deal with and no time to think about it properly. No time to brood, was probably their reasoning.

"I can’t believe that I didn’t pick up just how unusual your reactions were, back in the hospital. I mean, I knew that you were recovering way quicker than you should have been, but I didn’t really give much thought to why. Took a while for your friends down there to convince me. Vampires."

Theyoung doctor shook her head as if she was still digesting the fact that such things existed. It made Buffy feel strangely sad. This woman shouldn’t have to know about the dangers which lurked out there in the night. It was the slayer’s job to protect not only her life, but also her innocence. Again the pain of failure hit Buffy hard. She sighed.

They’re not my friends, not anymore." The blonde slayer knew that Maggie would understand what she meant this time. Buffy had lost the love and respect of everyone in Sunnydale, forever. But she still wasn’t quite sure where she had gone wrong. There was still no doubt that Buffy’s life had been in danger while she was in Sunnydale. She had needed the protection which Faith had given her. And thinking over their time on the road again, Buffy had to admit to herself that she wouldn’t have given up a single second of it to come back to Sunnydale. Yet the very same instant she felt resolved about this, her conscience popped up again with the whole sense of duty thing. The exhausted slayer closed her eyes and rubbed her head. Maggie moved a little closer and cautiously moved her arm over to massage the back of Buffy’s neck. The slayer couldn’t bring herself to resist. It felt too good.

"Yes, they are. Don’t ever doubt them. They may be angry at you, and they may be cold for a while, but I know for a fact that you mean the world to all of them. They won’t give up on you unless you kill one of them."

Buffy shuddered at the thought and looked up to meetMaggie’s earnest eyes. "Even if they did ever forgive me for abandoning my duties, they’ll never be able to accept the fact that I love Faith. And I’m not willing to give that up just to preserve their image of who they think I should be."

Maggie nodded slowly and looked away from Buffy, studying the pictures arranged around the room. The blonde slayer was disappointed when Maggie stopped rubbing her neck and moved away slightly, apparently ready to get down to the real business of her visit.

"Actually, that was what I wanted to talk to you about." Buffy didn’t let the doctor go on. She knew already where this was going to go. None of her friends had mentioned Faith once since they’d entered the house. The slayer wasn’t even sure if they were intending to mention developments to her mother. But the disapproval radiated off them in waves. Buffy had no doubt that the doctor was only going to verbalise the group’s opinion. And she really didn’t want to hear it.

"I know that it’s going to seem weird to you. You don’t know Faith. Only from what they’ve told you. And none of them know her either. Not like I do. So it’s probably easy for you to write her off as a ‘psychopathic murderer’. But don’t expect to convince me to agree with you."

As she spoke Buffy movedbackwards until she was sitting in the centre of the bed, leaning against the bedhead with her arms crossed in front of her chest and her legs straight out in front of her. Maggie would have to turn around if she wanted to peg the slayer down with her disconcerting dark brown eyes now. The brunette doctor didn’t move for a few moments. The slayer could almost see her thinking up a plan of attack. The best way to undermine Faith. But Buffy was certain that she would never succeed. The blonde slayer would never abandon her love for the extraordinary girl who had saved her.

Fully alert, as if primed for battle, the slayer watched Maggie’s every movement closely as the doctor stood slowly and walked towards her dressing table. What was she playing at? Buffy was getting edgy and rolled her head back and forth on her neck to try and relieve some of the tension still gathered there. Casually, Maggie picked up each of the framed photos on the dresser one at a time. The slayer pictured each one in the mimind as the doctor came to it. Buffy and her mother grinning somewhat inanely. She, Xander and Willow on a trip to the beach. Giles wearing an expression of the stunned mullet variety as the slayer grabbed a candid snap of him deep in his beloved books. All of them at the Homecoming dance, Buffy and Cordelia wearing matching expressions of disgust at being photographed in their respective dishevelled states. The brunette doctor paused at this last one for longer than any of the others. She still didn’t look up.

"This her?" Buffy smiled slightly, remembering how Faith had casually and unobtrusively wrapped her arm around the older slayer’s waist as they had all shuffled in close together.

"Uh huh. Not bad, hey?" Maggie didn’t reply, moving on to inspect the other things on the dresser.

"No pictures of Angel?" The slayer snorted.

"He doesn’t photograph too well. Being a vampire and all." The brunette woman just nodded. She was keeping amazingly calm in the face of Buffy’s obnoxiousness. The slayer wasn’t used to dealing with such a cool-headed opponent.

"He seems like a pretty nice guy."

"He’s not a guy at all." If this doctor thought that she was going to get to Buffy through Angel she was kidding herself. Any feelings the blonde slayer had ever had for the vampire had disappeared when Faith had turned up on the doorstep, ashen-faced and mauled. There was no way they were going to get to her by going down that road. It seemed Maggie sensed that.

"It’s a nice place you’ve got here."

"Sunnydale’s not too bad I guess. Once you get used to the constant threat of Armageddon, death on every corner, all those minor hassles." Feint, parry. Buffy could handle this conversational sparring as easily as she could its physical equivalent.

"I mean your house. Your mom, your friends and everything. Doesn’t seem like too bad a deal." Bullshit. What the fuck would she know? The slayer was sick of playing Maggie’s games. If the doctor had something to say it was time that she came right out and said it.

Why would I throw it all away by falling in love with a social deviant, you mean? And a girl, what’s more."

Maggie looked up from the picture to meet Buffy’sangry eyes in the mirror. "You really think that’s the most important issue here? Personally, I don’t give a shit about that."

Buffy let her smirk indicate her disbelief. The brunette woman turned around and headed back over to the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed so that her eyes were level with the slayer’s.

"I’m a lesbian,Buffy. Now that particular fact isn’t often relevant to my treatment of patients, but it is here. Because it takes the whole ‘Faith’s a girl’ issue right out of the equation. Can you see that?" Buffy frowned slightly and wrinkled her forehead in thought. Maggie was gay. That was an interesting twist. But it still didn’t change the fact that the doctor didn’t know Faith like Buffy did.

"Okay, so I’m supposed to believe that just because you’re not having a homophobic reaction to Faith and I that your opinions are valid?" Buffy was a little thrown but still prepared to go on the offensive.

"No. But you are supposed to believe that I can look at this whole thing objectively. Come on, Buffy. You’re a smart girl. You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you think Faith is all sweetness and light, no matter what other parts of your body are telling you." Buffy lifted her chin and met Maggie’s brown eyes without flinching.

"Faith has never been anything less than wonderful to me. I know that she’s made mistakes --"

"Mistakes?" Maggie raised her eyebrows, indicating that she believed that this was something of an understatement in the light of Faith’s past behaviour.

"I can’t stand how you all look down on her. She’s been in a lot of bad situations and she’s had to do a lot just to survive. I know how hard it’s been for her. I’d like to see you, or any of my supposed friends downstairs, deal any better." Maggie opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Buffy waited cautiously for her next move. The doctor swung her feet up onto the bed and rolled over so that she was lying on her stomach, looking up at the slayer.

"Tell me how you feel about her."

"What kind of a stupid question is that?" Maggie nodded slightly to indicate that Buffy should answer it anyway. The slayer rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "I love her. That’s all there is to it. We connect in a way that I never have with anyone else and we’re destined to spend our lives together. Once she comes for me, you’ll all see the truth." As she answered she fidgeted with the quilt on the bed, somewhat uncomfortable at the direction the conversation was taking.

"Okay." The brunette doctor nodded slowly. Maybe she would understand. Maybe this wouldn’t be as hard as Buffy had feared. If the others could just see the side of Faith which Buffy knew, they would know that the slayers were born to be together. Buffy started to relax a little for the first time since returning to Sunnydale.

"Do you remember how you felt about her before your injury?" The slayer’s defences were back up immediately.

"I felt the same. I’ve always felt the same about her." Buffy brought her legs up and crossed them in front of her chest, wrapping her arms tightly around them. She hated talking about this. No one else would understand. This wasn’t even just a normal love thing. It was more than that. It was a slayer thing.

"Really? From what I’ve heard she wasn’t exactly Ms Popular around here. Xander’s still bitter. And you don’t even want to hear Willow’s views on the topic." Buffy shrugged.

"I don’t care. It’s the truth."

But was it? What didit matter anyway? She knew that she loved Faith now, so what did it matter about what she had felt then anyway. The blonde slayer felt the slightest twinge of uncertainty. She’d always felt some level of connection to Faith. Even when the younger slayer had first arrived and they’d been slightly uncomfortable around each other, feeling each other out. Buffy smiled unconsciously at the memory of that first sight of the brunette slayer in action. Oh yeah, she’d always been attracted to Faith. Her uncertainty at how to deal with it had held them up for a while. But they had been moving closer, even before Buffy was injured. The older slayer winced at the memory of the pain of the events leading up to that night at the docks. She didn’t want to think about that now. She’d think about it later. All that mattered now was that Buffy not give up on their love. And she knew that she wasn’t going to.

The slayer fixed thebrunette doctor with her green eyes. "Faith didn’t brainwash me into loving her, though I know that that’s what all of you think. I loved her before we left, even if I hadn’t realised it then. Nothing you say is going to change that." The doctor smiled at her, confusing Buffy slightly.

"Okay, okay. We’ll talk more about this later. Why don’t you try and get some sleep? You must be exhausted. How are you feeling?"

"Mainly pissed off, thanks for asking. Can I finally get some time alone now?" Maggie stood up and headed over towards the door.

"Actually, I think that your mom was going to come in and sit with you while you sleep." Buffy groaned and buried her head into her pillow. She was never going to have a single second to herself again for the rest of her life, she was sure. "They’re just worried about you, is all." The slayer looked up at the doctor with scorn.

"They just don’t trust me, is all. I just hope that they realise that the more they bug me, the more likely I am to take off again. And, despite their delusions of competence, they won’t be able to do anything to stop me. I promised them I’d stay, at least till this thing with the Mayor and the Willow Vampire is cleared up. If they can’t accept my word I’m more than happy to do my thing somewhere else."

"Chill, Buffy. I’ll tell them to cool it a bit. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that they stay off your back. Just try and get some sleep, okay." Buffy’s face softened slightly and she nodded her thanks to the doctor. At least Maggie wasn’t treating her like she’d been infected with Faith’s supposed insanity.

"Thanks. I think I need it." The brunette doctor smiled at her and left the room quietly. Buffy stretched out and closed her eyes. She barely had time to desperately hope that her mom wouldn’t come barging in before she fell asleep.

******

Well, my dear. I can’t say that I approve of your wardrobe but you certainly are...efficient."

MayorRichard Wilkins III was inspecting the new decor of what used to be the town’s most unhygienic night-club, the Bronze. It was the newly adopted base of his latest vampire assistant and he had come by to check her methods. The mayor was immensely impressed by the attention to detail displayed by this new vampire, although her penchant for debauchery was really something which required some attention. Still he could overlook that little defect just because of the good work she’d already done in collecting him a whole bunch of strong new vampires. The staff recruitment drive had come at just the right time for the Mayor, allowing him to delegate a lot of the work that still had to be done in the lead up to his Ascension. Plus this vampire had the deliciously amusing bonus feature of being the exact double of that pesky white hat,Willow Rosenberg.

The mayor wandered over to what had been the serving area of the building in its previous incarnation. He ran a finger along the counter and inspected it carefully. Somewhat grimy but he didn’t want to risk saying anything about it. This particular vampire had to be treated very carefully. The mayor pulled a large white handkerchief out of his pocket and cleaned his finger thoroughly. As he did so he looked with concern at the large pile of bodies behind the counter.

"You might want to think about better storage facilities for your snacks. A food poisoning epidemic could put all these lovely new vampires out of action." The mayor spun around and grinned broadly at the leather-clad vampire standing behind him. "And we wouldn’t want that, would we?"

She just smiled slowly and shrugged. "Can always make more. So many delicious young morsels, waiting to be enjoyed." She was caressing the short, animalistic vampire who appeared to be her favourite. For the moment at least. The mayor straightened his back, disgusted by this overt display of sexual misbehaviour.

"No, no, no." The invincible mayor walked across to the red-headed vampire as she was busily licking the neck of the young male vampire. "There will be no more of that, you hear me? We’ve got quite enough vampires for now." She looked up at the mayor, sneering. Willow’s face changed suddenly into the familiar vampire visage.

"Why shouldn’t we make a little fun? I can make this world as fun as mine, but you won’t let me. I don’t think that I really like you."

"Patience, my dear. You will have all the fun you can handle after my Ascension. Then together we will make the world Hellish enough to keep even you satisfied. But until then you really must do as I say and lay low." The vampire rolled her eyes at him and turned back to her young man. The mayor reached out and grabbed her on the shoulder, spinning her around. "I mean it. This is my town. I made it. And I’m not going to have you destroy all my hard work."

Shegrowled at him and flashed her teeth. The mayor attempted to regain his composure. It really wouldn’t do to make her angry at him. "Now, now, none of that. You know you can’t harm me. And if you don’t want to play ball, I can have the slayers brought back here at any time. Just one phone call to all those watchers camped out down the road and a big party pooper by the name of Buffy will be on your doorstep before you know it." The vampire shrugged off his hand, feigning indifference.

"Whatever. Bored now, Ozzy." The short male vampire responded by grunting. He really did appear to be of the lowest order of vampires. Still it wasn’t likely that the red-haired vampire kept him around for conversational brilliance. She grabbed him by his dark blue hair and kissed him violently. Disgusting behaviour. The mayor turned away and continued his inspection of the former night-club.

Wilkins was well aware that her bravado was fake. This vampire wasn’t exactly abnormal in her dislike for slayers, but she did seem to be unusually adverse to the concept of having Buffy around. The mayor had spotted this very early on, and was more than willing to use this discomfort to keep her under control. The vampiric version of Willow was a very real threat to the town he had worked so hard to create for all these years. She was powerful, there was no denying that. The very first night she had arrived in Sunnydale the red-haired vampire had gained control over all the warring factions of vampires in the town, as well as killing a good proportion of its high school students.

This had not been good news for the mayor. What with all the work still to be done before the Ascension the last thing he had needed was a potential rival. Particularly one who appeared hell-bent on devouring everyone in town. Fortunately for Mayor Wilkins, he had excellent people skills, and had learned to adapt them to the particular needs of negotiating with vampires. This vampire was no Mr Trick. The mayor missed the camaraderie and understanding between himself and his now departed former associate. But, the Willow vampire could at least be kept under control. And, by keeping her busy, he usually managed to maintain a relatively free hand over the large number of vampires who followed her.

"How’s things coming along downstairs?" The vampire’s face changed back into human form as her eyes lit up with joy. She dropped the vampire she had been busily ravishing. He fell to the floor panting and growling.

Willow ignored him and walked over to join the mayor at the top of the stairs to the cellar. Adjusting her clothing as she did so. The mayor tried to keep his face indifferent but was unable to suppress a disapproving frown. Fortunately, she was too excited by the subject to notice his expression.

"Good. I like it a lot. It’s just like my world down there. Would you like to come down and play?" She looked up at him expectantly, her eyes flashing with the pleasure she got from exacting torturous pain on humans. The mayor smiled down at her. He could never stay mad at the red-haired vampire for long. Sure she engaged in unspeakable sexual perversions. But you had to love that attitude. She was just such a go-getter when it came to torture and killing.

"Not right now. I’m late for an important meeting. Maybe another time, hey?"

"Maybe that would be better. The ones down there now are a bit worn out. They all break so easily. I wish I had my puppy to play with." The vampire looked wistfully down the stairs to the cellar. Mayor Wilkins attempted to comfort her by patting her tentatively on the shoulder. He tried to avoid touching her as much as possible. She had already made some rather unpleasant advances towards him and it didn’t take much to encourage her.

"Never mind. Angel will come back here sooner or later. Then you’ll have plenty to keep your hands full." The mayor actually had people out looking for Angel. He would prove very handy in keeping this dangerously capable vampire distracted from killing the human residents of Sunnydale. Until then he’d have to make do with allowing her to capture and torture a few of his constituents. It was a small price to pay.

********

It was uncomfortable at the dinner table. Just Buffy and her mom in a good ole family dinner full of love, understanding and all round iciness. The slayer coughed slightly and squirmed in her chair. She really, really didn’t want to be doing this. Unfortunately for the slayer, however, meals with her mom appeared to be an absolutely integral part of the "Reforming Brainwashed Slayers in 12 Easy Steps" handbook that Giles and Maggie had been getting into so heavily. The bored girl sighed and continued eating her peas one at a time. Another annoying thing about these damned ‘therapeutic’ activities was that they were scheduled so rigidly that anyone would think that Wesley had taken to them with his beloved bottle of starch. Buffy had learned very quickly to drag the eating out as long as possible, because, once she was done with that all that was left was the sitting. Usually in total and uncomfortable silence.

The slayer hated that things were so weird with her mom. But it wasn’t like they were all that much weirder than before everything had happened. Only difference was that now there was an allocated time for the complete lack of communication to take place. Buffy sighed again and tried one more time to strike that deep vein of thrilling conversation she knew must be hiding somewhere under the dinner table.

"So, things are going well at the gallery?" Her mom looked up from her plate and finished chewing a mouthful of food before she answered.

"Not too bad. I’m a little behind in my ordering for next month actually, what with all the time I’ve been spending...doing other things."

That was another thingwhich really wasn’t helping the situation. The conversational black-ban imposed by the regime currently controlling every facet of her life. Whole subjects were deemed only to be discussed in the almost constant counselling sessions with Maggie. Unfortunately those subject areas covered pretty much everything that was currently of any interest in Buffy’s life, rendering all conversational efforts largely useless. Except with Xander. The one time the slayer had tried to make conversation with Xander, things had gone pretty much exactly as she had remembered it. Which is why she’d chosen keep repetitions of the experience as rare as possible.

"Do you need some help down there? Because I’m still off school till next week --"

"No, Buffy. What you’re doing with Doctor Doyle and the watchers is important. I’ll just work overtime."

The slayer looked down at the table and rolled her eyes. How her mom managed to go the guilt trip on her for this was a little beyond Buffy. She had not asked for, nor did she need, to spend all day, every day in either basic training or intensive counselling. With one hour off to eat lunch with an approved companion. Which usually meant sitting watching Willow slouched over the computer or Cordelia slouched over her latest fingernail emergency. Followed by these thrilling dinner dates with her mom, before an exciting evening of highly supervised patrolling in low-risk areas. She’d only been doing it a couple of days and already she was bored out of her skull. Fetching and carrying at her mom’s dusty old gallery had never sounded more attractive.

"Do you want some more soda, honey?"

Buffy looked upagain at her mom, who was trying her best to smile maternally. And failing. It was mostly the huge black rings under the eyes which brought the whole act down. That and the fact that her mother still couldn’t meet Buffy’s eyes for more than a fleeting second without looking away with an expression that seemed to be somewhere between compassion and confusion, on the freeway to disgust. The slayer shook her head silently and attacked her last french fry. Morosely, she thought back to the only time in living memory when her mom had been genuinely perky at the dinner table. The first time she’d brought Faith home. And that had only been because she had realised the potential of the situation. Not the same potential that Buffy had seen, of course, but potential nonetheless. There was no hope in her mom’s face now. The slayer slumped back in her chair and contemplated what horrible crime her mom must have committed in a past life to get a deal like this on her next time around. Whatever it was, it must have been a lot less naughty than whatever Buffy had done because now came the moment the slayer had been dreading since the last horrible activity. The doorbell rang.

The slayer stood slowly and walked over to get it,muttering to herself.

"The joyful sound of bells can only mean one thing. Is it horrible death and evil? Oh no. It’s patrolling, the G-rated version. No violence required. And tonight’s lucky contestant is..." Buffy threw open the front door and was a little surprised at who stood there. "Willow... Hi. Ummm, I’ll just go get my coat. Come on in." The young witch didn’t say anything but wandered past Buffy and into thedining room.

"Hi there, Willow. Would you like some pie?" The slayer left her mom to do the entertaining.

Considering that she had barely heard Willow speak two words since her outburst in the van that first morning Buffy wasn’t expecting to miss any ground-breaking developments in the conversational department. She went upstairs to get her coat, contemplating why her former best friend had been put on this particular duty. Eventually she decided that Giles must just be trying to get Willow out and about. Willow was looking mighty pale. It couldn’t possibly be healthy for her to be sitting in the library all day every day. But, as she was tossing up between a black and a silver coat, Buffy was struck by another thought. What if that wasn’t Willow at all? Her blood ran cold. The slayer gave herself a look of disgust in the mirror and took off down the stairs.

When she hit the bottom, the slayer could see her mom dishing out a substantial slice of pie to the redhead. Buffy hurried into the dining room, focused on the girl sitting at the table.

"Okay, all dressed and in a new Olympic record time. Let’s go kill stuff." The red-haired girl stood up slowly.

"Sure, whatever." Behind her, Buffy heard her mother sigh.

"I’ll just put the pie in the fridge. Maybe you’ll feel like some when you get back." The slayer half turned, still not letting the Willow-like person out of her sight.

"Thanks mom. It’ll be all gone in the morning, I promise." She waved the redhead ahead of her and they walked out the onto the front porch.

"Be careful, honey."

Buffy turned back and nodded toher mother, who was standing in the doorway. The slayer actually took this message on board silently, for the first time in her life not countering in with a flip remark. She recognised the stupidity in what she’d done earlier. Sure, she was almost positive now that this was Willow, the genuine article. But she hadn’t so much as looked twice at the girl who had knocked at the door before inviting her in. Not very intelligent behaviour from a slayer who knew that there was a vampire double of her best friend out there. Maybe the others were right. Maybe she had lost it. And she had no doubt that she was going to hear all about her stupidity.

Giles and Maggie were waiting on the corner of her street. Buffy hung her head as she and Willow wandered up to them.

"Good evening, Buffy."

"Hey, Buffy." The slayer smiled fleetingly at the former watcher and the doctor.

"How did it go?" Willow shook her head and began to answer Giles’ question.

"She --". Buffy didn’t let her finish.

"I failed, okay. I didn’t even think twice about inviting her in. Then I virtually served my mom up to her on a jumbo-sized silver platter while I contemplated what kind of fashion statement I wanted to make." The Englishman looked at her gravely.

"This wasn’t really a test, Buffy. It was more like a lesson. We didn’t think that you were giving proper credit to the dangers potentially posed by this new vampire. I was just trying to make you more aware, and perhaps a little more cautious." The blonde slayer sighed. She wondered briefly why they were bothered about her at all. She was obviously no good at her job anymore. Who knew if she ever would be again. They would have been better off just leaving she and Faith to their own devices. Buffy kicked at a crack in the footpath in frustration as she waited for Giles to continue his lecture.

"Why don’t you guys use, like, a password or something? So that you know when Willow is Willow, and not going to suck your neck in an unpleasant manner."

"Good idea, Doctor Doyle. What shall it be?"

"It can’t be anything about me. Since she is me." Willow’s voice crackled with bitterness.

"That’s not technically true. She’s not you in this world. But, still, it would perhaps be safer not to use an aspect of your life. Let’s make it something about Buffy." The slayer sighed. This was incredibly stupid stuff, but she had brought it upon herself by being incredibly stupid so there wasn’t really a lot that could be done about it now.

"Look, let’s just use, I don’t know...Mr Gordo." For some unknown reason the slayer’s favourite stuffed animal companion had popped into her head.

"Mr...Gordo?" Giles gave her a confused look but Buffy was happy to see Willow looking at her with a slight smile.

"Sure. I can ask any Willow-like personage ‘who’s in my bed?’ and if they answer Mr Gordo I’ll know not to stake them." The Englishman shook his head slightly in confusion, leading to the slayer and the witch exchanging a brief grin at his expense. The moment was such a flashback that they both had to look away again almost instantly. Buffy was struck by the realisation of just how much she missed her former best friend.

"Fine. Well now, are you ready to patrol?"

"What, are we selling tickets now or something?" The slayer surveyed the little group standing under the streetlight. She was willing to grant them the fact that maybe she wasn’t right on top of her game. But having three people to worry about whilst patrolling wasn’t really the best way to improve matters.

"No, no. I’ll be accompanying Willow home and Doctor Doyle will be going with you on patrol." Buffy looked at the doctor, who was grinning broadly. Maggie had a twinkle in her eye which could only possibly be excitement as she tweaked her eyebrows at Buffy. The slayer sighed and hoped that this wouldn’t just be an extended therapy session. Though with the absolute lack of action in the areas she had been ordered to patrol, there wasn’t much hope of anything more than talking occurring tonight. The small blonde girl stood upright and threw back her shoulders.

"Fine. Let’s do it then." She and Maggie headed off into the centre of town as Giles called after them.

I’ll call at eleven, to make sure you’re home safely."

Buffy shook her head slightly but didn’t turn around. Maggie was bounding along beside her, tense with adrenaline.

"I’m so pumped about this. What do you think the chances are of running into something?"

"I’d say that slim to none would be over-estimating them somewhat. Why?" The doctor turned to the slayer, her dark eyes shining.

"You’re kidding right? Don’t you know how cool this is? I’ve never seen a vampire, well, except for Angel and he doesn’t really count. I can’t wait to see you dust one of the bastards." Maggie made a violent stabbing motion to emphasise her last statement, causing Buffy to give her a wide-eyed look of surprise. When the doctor saw this, she looked a little sheepish. "Sorry. I realise this probably isn’t that exciting for you. But I haven’t been pumped like this since the last time I caught the El. Oh, and don’t worry I can protect myself." The doctor opened her jacket to reveal the pistol tucked into the inside pocket. The slayer’s green eyes somehow managed to open even wider. She cleared her throat before speaking.

"Umm, that’s nice. But this isn’t a thrill ride for me. It’s my job, and it’s important. Saving innocent people and all that. About the equivalent of going to work for you, just with a whole lot more danger." The doctor didn’t reply and they walked on quietly for a couple of minutes until they came to a cemetery. Out of habit the slayer walked in through the gates, leaving Maggie behind on the sidewalk.

"Hey, is this on the route?" Buffy stopped and turned around. No cemeteries were on the approved route. Which basically sucked because there wasn’t a whole lot of vampire action going on anywhere else. Except the Bronze, which Buffy wasn’t exactly mad keen to visit. Not just yet anyway.

"Maybe next time, hey." The blonde slayer rolled her eyes and walked back out to the sidewalk, frowning. She thrust her hands deep into the pockets of her black coat in frustration.

"Guess I should have been more careful earlier. With the test and all." Buffy kept her gaze straight ahead, although she could tell that the doctor was looking at her.

"It wasn’t a test, Buffy. Willow just wanted to remind you how dangerous things were around here. Remind you why we’re taking things slowly."

Willow? That was her idea?"

"Sure. She’s really worried about you." The slayer fell to silent contemplation at this unexpected pieceof news. It was some time before Maggie broke into her thoughts.

"So, how are you feeling?" Buffy didn’t really feel like responding so she shrugged her shoulders and made a big show of looking all around, like at any second a vampire was going to jump out at them here in the middle of the main street. Unfortunately the doctor didn’t take a hint. "Do you still resent your friends for what they did?" The slayer felt the muscles in her neck tighten. Of course she fucking resented them. They’d beaten and drugged the girl she loved right in front of her eyes, just to bring her back here and attempt to talk her out of feeling the way she did. But, Buffy had learned very quickly that that path only led to a long and very extended dialogue on the glorious selflessness and love offered by the Scooby Gang. She sighed.

"No. They were doing the what they thought was the right thing. They were trying to help me." Although the words stuck in her throat, they were really probably true. That was the most annoying thing about this whole situation. The watchers and her former friends were trying to do the right thing, in a particularly difficult situation. Which is why Buffy was willing to go along with them, up to a point. But they were going about it in entirely the wrong way, focussing all their energies on the rather pointless aim of getting the blonde slayer to forget Faith. It was like getting her back into the slaying was a secondary goal. Talk about screwed up priorities.

"It is the best thing for you, Buffy. Your relationship with Faith was an entirely unhealthy one. No one who loved you would want that for you."

Buffyhad to cough to prevent herself from making a particularly sharp retort. She was really, really sick of talking about this. Maggie was, quite frankly, full of shit. The brunette doctor had no idea what she was talking about, but that didn’t stop her attempting to undermine Faith at every opportunity. Buffy looked at her companion out of the corner of her eye and wondered if Maggie had the faintest idea of the effect that these discussions were actually having on the slayer. The more the doctor ran Faith down as a wild slut, the more Buffy hugged to herself the memory of the younger girl’s attentive tenderness when she was helpless. The more Maggie talked about Faith’s uncontrolled violence and complete lack of remorse for her actions, the more Buffy responded by replaying over and over the night she’d awoken to the sounds of Faith’s nightmare about what she’d done. Buffy had no doubt now that that nightmare had been about killing Alan. And she had already forgiven Faith with her whole heart. Basically, the more the doctor tried to talk her out of loving the dark-haired slayer the more Buffy longed for her. She missed Faith like crazy.

"Have you heard how she is?" The blonde slayer tried to ask the question as casually as she could. One of the things which kept her sane in these sessions was that Maggie would occassionally let slip information which the watchers knew but wouldn’t tell her.

"Her operation went well. They hope to start a psychiatric evaluation soon."

That meant they’d have to stop drugging her. Buffy knew that the Council would be drugging the younger slayer. It was the only way that bunch of total incompetants would have been able to hold her for this long. Once they stopped poisoning her it wouldn’t be long till Faith escaped and came for Buffy.

The slayer stopped abruptly and assumed a combat stance as her keen hearing picked up an unusual shuffling sound down a nearby alley. Maggie’s eyes widened in excitement and her hand moved under her jacket, towards her pistol. Buffy rolled her eyes and whispered to the doctor.

"Chill, Rambo." The last thing she needed was a trigger-happy novice shooting her in the back.

Cautiously, the slayer edged towards the opening of the alley, her heart racing at the thought that she might finally see some actual slayage action. As she rounded the corner, however, Buffy let her body relax in disappointment. A dog, albeit a large and somewhat vicious-looking dog, was rummaging through pile of garbage bags. Maggie peeped over the slayer’s shoulder and laughed. Buffy turned around and started to walk away.

"I’m starting to wonder if I haven’t just got myself caught up in a rather bizarre case of mass hysterical delusion. You don’t classify that as a vampire do you?"

"Shhh." The slayer froze again. She was almost certain that she had heard footsteps while the doctor was talking. But there was not a sound to be heard now. Even the dog had disappeared. Buffy could feel a headache coming on. She turned to look at the doctor with a grin. "Yeah, we’re all mad. Maybe you’d better just take off before you really, truly start believing us." The doctor just laughed.

"What’s next then?"

"Well, I don’t know about you but I’m off home." To spend another sleepless night worried about what was happening to Faith. "Want me to walk you back to your motel?" Maggie was staying in the motel where the dark-haired slayer had set up home while in Sunnydale. Buffy wouldn’t mind wandering over there for a bit of a visit. Unfortunately, it seemed that the doctor had been tipped of about the potential memories which might be aroused by just such an event.

"Nah, I’m good. Besides it’s in a really bad part of town. No place for a nice girl like yourself." The doctor grinned at Buffy. The slayer wasn’t sure whether to be insulted more for herself or for Faith. Both worked for her and she made her farewells as brief as possible.

"Okay. Well, I’ll see you round."

"Tomorrow. We’ll talk." Buffy groaned, causing Maggie to take a step towards her. The doctor put what was intended to be an encouraging hand on the slayer’s shoulder. "You’re making really good progress, Buffy. By the end of the week I think you’ll be mentally ready for a return to full responsibilities."

The end of the week. That wasanother three days of faking belief in all the bullshit psychobabble Maggie and Giles came up with. Buffy let out a silent plea to Faith to hurry up and get her out of this. Once Faith was here they wouldn’t make her do all that crap anymore. Once Faith was here they wouldn’t be able to make her do anything she didn’t want to at all. But for now she had to make sure they didn’t take more drastic measures in an attempt to ‘cure’ her.

"Okay, see you tomorrow then."

"Goodnight Buffy."

The slayer walked back towards her house. She did a quick sweep of the three cemetaries she passed by on the way but without a single encounter. No new born vamps, no freshly dug graves. Nothing. Things were eerily quiet here in Sunnydale. It was almost like the Hellmouth had conspired with Giles, Maggie and the others to keep her out of the slaying game. But it couldn’t possibly stay like this for long. All Buffy could hope was that Faith had made her way back here when everything blew up in their faces. Feeling frustrated and lonely, Buffy hurried home to meet her curfew.

********

The slayer woke suddenly to the sound of somebody opening the window of the hospital room. Still slightly groggy, Faith sat up as best she could and looked around for a weapon. There was nothing at all within arm’s reach. Fucking watchers wouldn’t know their ass from their elbow, let alone how to run a slaying operation. Leaving an injured and doped up slayer alone and unarmed was pretty much hanging out an invitation sign to all kinds of nasties to come and party. Still, maybe they figured it would be the easiest way to rid themselves of a rather large pain in the rear. So, Faith was going to have to deal with whoever this was bare handed. No big deal. Sure. Then why was she sweating so damn much?

Faith narrowed her eyes in the darkness, trying to identify who or what was climbing into her room. They must have turned the lights off to make sure she had a good long sleep. Another example of watcher incompetence. Any idiot knew that slayers sleep better in the daytime. Anyway, the complete lack of light from the window was a sure sign that it was night now, which was one bright spot in Faith’s otherwise shitty current existence. She could not make out anything about the intruder except that they weren’t exactly the stealthiest bastard going around. He, Faith assumed it was a he from the low grunting noises he was emitting, finally managed to pull his considerable bulk up and into the room. His feet hit the floor with a thud and were accompanied by a string of curses.

"Son of a bitch third floor rooms. I gotta remember to charge extra wall scaling fees in the future. You ready to check out, slayer?" The demon Lucianus strode over to her bed with a grin on his face. He sure did look better than the last time she had seen him, Faith had to give him that. And she was fucking glad to see him.

"I never thought I’d be this glad to see you. But I hope you came prepared." Faith indicated her chained-to-the-bed predicament. The slayer had tried to work on loosening it every time she’d woken up but, because she always seemed to fall asleep again within minutes, she hadn’t gotten very far.

"I’m always prepared. Most of the time." The bald demon felt his black duster till he found what he was looking for. He reached somewhere into its depths and pulled out a small hand saw.

"How’d you find me?" The slayer asked as he set to work on her cast.

"Heard what went down. And I figured that you weren’t likely to call me, so I’d have to make the contact. Do you think they made this thick enough?"

He was struggling to get through the numerous layers of plaster and was starting to get a little rough. Faith winced slightly and grabbed the saw out of his hand. He’d managed to cut through to just above her elbow but the worst bit was still to come and she really didn’t want to flinch and cause an amateur amputation at this stage.

"Let me." The slayer took the saw, found a good angle from which to attack the cast and set to work. As gently as possible. Her arm was really letting her know it was there now. She bit her lip and kept on ploughing through. Thankfully the talkative demon was more than happy to provide a distraction.

"So, they repossessed Buffy, hey? Too bad. Not so good for her either, considering that the fair city of Sunnydale is in shit up to its neck. I figure that she’s gonna need some help." Faith gasped in triumph as she got to the end of the cast. Lucianus leant over from where he’d seated himself near her feet and grabbed the cast in two hands. Then pulled them apart. Faith clutched at the mattress with her good hand and bit her bottom lip till she drew blood but she managed to keep from screaming. When the strongest waves of pain had passed she lifted her arm up out of its shell. The slayer raised it as high as she could to get a closer look at the damage Angel had done. It wasn’t pretty. Her arm was pale and shrivelled already and she probably wouldn’t even be able to count the stitches in it. They must have put a pin in it as well, because she could definitely feel something in there that didn’t belong. The slayer shuddered slightly, with anger more than anything. And a burning desire for revenge.

"What’s going on?" Faith fixed Lucianus with a cold stare, worried about what he’d said about Buffy being in trouble. This would have to be the lowest point of her whole life, which was some effort considering everything in her history pretty much sucked. Sure, she knew now that the older slayer had feelings for her. But what the hell use would that be if she’d put Buffy in danger. It would only make things worse. And Faith had no delusions that this situation was anything but her fault. She’d virtually let the Scooby Gang waltz in and take the other slayer through her own stupid and reckless behaviour. Still what was done was done. Now it was time to fix it.

"What’s happening to Buffy?"

"There’s no time to talk about it now. The security here isn’t up to much but I’d rather not have to deal with them if it’s okay with you. I’ll lay the deal on you once we’re out of here."

Faith nodded her acceptance and tried to get off the bed, without placing any weight on her damaged arm.

You think you can do much with that thing?" Lucianus looked at her sceptically. Faith briefly wondered about that herself, but she soon brushed the doubts aside.

"Anything I need to do." Grimacing slightly Faith stood up, cradling her injured arm.

"Maybe this isn’t such a good idea --" She always had pegged this demon as one gutless dude. Still, he was right. Faith wasn’t going to be able to do much while she was in this kind of pain. But, knowing Lucianus, he was sure to have something that would help. The slayer inspected the shape of the demon’s duster and grinned slightly.

"Shut the fuck up and pass me the bottle." Lucianus chuckled quietly, reached down into another pocket of his jacket and pulled out a hip flask of bourbon. Faith took it eagerly and swallowed quite a few gulps.

It burned her throat going down and hit her stomach hard, but at least it got her mind off the pain. "Okay, so how do we get out of here?" The demon got off the bed and wandered over to the window.

"I was gonna go back this way but..." The slayer stood at her full height and raised an eyebrow, challenging him to suggest that she couldn’t make the climb.

"Okay, it’s your damn fool neck. Just let me go first so I can watch you fall from safe on the ground."

Lucianus went out the window backwards, hanging on to the sill with his hands and he lowered himself down till he could get a secure footing on a ledge. Faith walked over to the window and looked down. Piece of piss. It was only three floors up. Two really by the time you got to that ledge. She could probably jump from there. The demon edged his way uncertainly along the ledge till he was above the awning of a doorway. As she watched his somewhat less than smooth movements Faith realised why he looked so damn awkward. His tail. The guy had a tail at least three feet long. But he was wearing pants and that damned overcoat look that was apparently the height of fashion among creatures of the night. He must tuck the fucking thing down one leg of his pants. And he’d done something to his spikes as well. Strapped them down by the looks of it. Watching him drop to the ground and waddle off to the shelter of some trees, Faith grinned. Some high quality demon ally she’d found herself.

Still smiling, the slayer lowered herself gracefully onto the ledge with one arm and virtually ran along it. When she got to the awning she looked up, grinned broadly at Lucianus and jumped. It wasn’t till she was in mid air that Faith realised that she was in hospital wear. The backless paper gown was bad enough, but it was the complete lack of footwear which was her most immediate problem. Still, like the story of her life, it was too late to think about that now. She just had to concentrate on hitting the ground with as little impact as possible. The dark-haired slayer managed to land on her feet and stay upright, but the shock of hitting the ground jolted her arm badly, sending shockwaves of pain up into her shoulder and down her back. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as it might have been, thanks to the thick carpet of green lawn on which she had managed to land. Looking around her, with her improving night vision, Faith saw that there were immaculately tended lawns and gardens all around the hospital. The slayer wondered about this as she ran over to where Lucianus was crouched in a little group of fair-sized pine trees.

"What the fuck is this place?" She hissed at him, looking back at the large building. From the outside it just looked like an old house. A huge old house with an army-sized maintenance staff.

"Some kind of private clinic or something. I have no idea. But I’ll tell you one thing, finding you was no mean feat, even for me. That’s why it took me so long." Faith looked at the demon curiously.

"How long have I been in there?"

"I figure at least five days. Maybe more. I’m not exactly sure when the little party went down at your apartment but by the time I got there there wasn’t a whole lot in the way of hot clues lying around. I did manage to salvage some junk though." Five days. Five whole fucking days they’d kept her drugged and locked up. Faith felt the rage building up inside her. But the watchers would keep. Besides, they’d probably come to her. It wasn’t going to take much in the way of thought to figure out where she’d be going. If they combined all their brain cells they could probably work it out.

"So it’s Sunnydale, here we come, hey?" Faith returned from her contemplation of how much the Watchers needed to be introduced to her fists to look somewhat quizzically at Lucianus.

"You’re coming? Why? I mean, you know I can’t pay you, don’t you?"

Lucianus grinned at her. He sure seemed a lot more lively this time of day. And a little less annoying. Maybe she’d misjudged him.

"I’m sure we can work something out. But for now I think we’d better get you into something more street-friendly. Don’t want you to freeze that hot little ass off, do we?"

Oh yeah, this guy was all class all right. Still Faith could probably do with some help right now. At least till she got her bearings again. The slayer’s world was still kinda fuzzy around the edges. Which was not surprising considering the sheer quantity of drugs which must have passed through her system these past few days. "You bring me something nice? Or are you going to have to put your tail on show?"

"Very funny. And here I brought you this big surprise and everything."

They came to the edge of the little cluster of trees and there, parked on the other side of a chain wire fence was her Cadillac. "Everything that was left in your apartment is in there on the back seat. So, sorry, no tail for you tonight."

Faith grinned and began to scale the fence as quickly as she could with one arm. Things were looking up.

******

Buffy walked down the street, twirling a stake distractedly in her fingers as tried to tune out the sound of Wesley prattling along next to her. She couldn’t believe that they still had her on supervised patrol, almost a week after forcibly dragging her ass back here. It was just such a waste of everyone’s time, but the slayer couldn’t convince them just let her go back to doing what she did best. One of the conditions of the Council leaving her alone was a slow and overly supervised road back to full duties. Hence, patrolling with the squarest man on the face of the earth. At least Giles had managed to keep Cordelia at the library and out of her way. Buffy suspected that physical restraints may have been involved.

"Giles and I believe that you are coming along very well. We may be able to start planning an assault on the Bronze as soon as this weekend." The watcher looked down at her smugly as they continued their leisurely walk towards the cemetery.

"Can we just wait a moment while I wipe away my tears of pride and gratitude?" Buffy tried desperately not to sneer at him. Then she widened her eyes slightly and grabbed the lapels of Wesley’s jacket, throwing him to the ground.

"What the --?" The slayer didn’t have any time to explain things in single syllables to the idiotic watcher. She was already busily engaged in a rumble with the three vampires who had emerged out of the alley behind him. Throwing Wesley out of the way had left her a little off balance, so when the first vamp leapt at her she had no choice but to go with the momentum and fall to the ground. Buffy knew that she was in good shape. She’d want to be what with all the training they’d had her doing. But she was still feeling a little nervous. They had been doing this supervised patrol thing for four days running without a single skirmish so far. Everybody knew that something big was coming and the slayer just hoped that this wasn’t it. She also desperately wished that Faith was here with her.

As she hit the ground Buffy tried to put that all out of her head and get focused. It was made a little easier by the sight of the enormous slavering vampire hovering over her, fangs at the ready. The blonde slayer rolled onto her back and drove her stake up smoothly into the vampire’s chest. Big but dumb. She thought that she recognised him as one of the jocks from her school basketball team. Anyway, he was dust now and it was time to move on to his companions. Buffy flipped herself up onto her feet and took up her fighting stance. She looked at the two remaining vampires. The first was an unfamiliar female vampire, tall with spiky peroxided hair. But the other one she knew. The slavering, growling vampire confronting her was Oz. The slayer shuddered at the sight of him. It was clear that in his new incarnation he had fully embraced his werewolf side. Oz was the most animalistic vampire she had ever seen, which was no small feat.

Buffy stood uncertainly for a moment and then launched herself at the female vampire. She didn’t want to have to deal with the whole dusting Oz scene right at the moment. In fact, a large part of her was brain was taken up by desperate hopes that he would run away. The slayer kicked the blonde vampire in the stomach, driving her up against the wall in the alley.

She reached out and grabbed Buffy’s hand, twisting it to force her to release the stake. The slayer watched the stake fall to the ground without much distress. It was going to eat up some time and give the were-vamp plenty of time to get away. Unfortunately, Oz was still standing grunting near the cowering Wesley. The vampire she was supposed to be fighting moved in and grabbed Buffy around the neck. The slayer decided that letting Oz get away with killing Wesley, while it was probably what everyone except Cordelia wanted, was not going to win her many points with Giles and the others. It was time to finish this off. She put her hands together and drove them up between the vampire’s arm, breaking her hold on the slayer’s neck. Buffy then punched the vampire a few times in the face before grabbing her shoulders and tossing her to the ground. The slayer reached down and grabbed her stake, kicking her opponent in the neck to make sure that she stayed on the ground. Once she had the wood safely in her hand she pounced on the vampire and dusted her. Then the blonde slayer turn around to check that Oz was behaving himself with her watcher.

The blue-haired vampire was crouched down, sniffing around the Englishman rather intently. The fact that Wesley was no longer screaming seemed to indicate that he had fainted. Buffy approached Oz cautiously. She had no idea what she should do. The slayer knew that Giles had been looking into the potential implications of performing the gypsy curse on Oz, with the rather ineffectual help of the deeply depressed Willow. Maybe if she could capture him they could try and help restore him. But at the same time Buffy wasn’t sure that that was such a good idea. Would Oz thank her for bringing him back to a life of eternal torment? The slayer had trouble believing that he would have much to be grateful for.

"Oz!" She called out to him. The vampire sprung to his feet and spun around, drooling rather repulsively.

"Tell your boss that I’m coming for her."

The vampire stood his ground, growling and muttering to himself. "Willow wants food. Food to play with."

Buffy had been wondering if he still had the ability to speak. "Not this food she doesn’t." The slayer advanced on the vampire slowly and deliberately. Oz growled once more before yelping and scampering off down the alley.******

Faith tried to sit still, she really did. The slayer could tell that she was annoying Lucianus with her constant fidgeting. Turning the car stereo on, turning the volume up, opening the window, changing the station, turning the volume down, leaning over to the back seat to look for something better to wear, turning the volume back up, changing the station again, turning the stereo off entirely and resorting to drumming out rhythms on her thighs. The demon was getting edgy and had started to develop an irritated twitch of his mouth every time she moved. But Faith couldn’t help herself. They just weren’t getting to Sunnydale fast enough. Hell, she’d been locked away from Buffy for five whole days. Who knew what could have changed in that time? The jumpy slayer tried to tell herself that the excessive adrenaline flow was just because of her excitement at the prospect of seeing Buffy again. But she knew that it wasn’t true.

She was afraid. The slayer from the mean streets of Boston didn’t feel afraid often. In fact, she was probably more shit-scared now than she ever had been at any other time in her life. Would Buffy be happy to see her? Or would the Scooby Gang have convinced her that their feelings were all just a lie? That Buffy had only felt that way about her because of her injury. Faith tried to think about what she would do if the older slayer rejected her now. The fact was that she couldn’t see a future for herself without Buffy in her life. The slayer reached forward and turned on the stereo once more, attempting to give herself something else to think about.

"What the...? Can’t you even sit still for a single, solitary minute." Lucianus finally cracked under the strain of her annoying behaviour. Faith turned to him and grinned broadly.

"Sorry, Spiky. Just a little excited I guess. How much longer, you reckon?"

The dawn wasn’t far away, as both of them well knew. They’d been driving for about three hours after getting slightly lost trying to find their way back to the freeway. That damn hospital had been way out in the middle of nowhere. Faith still was puzzled about how the Council’s gardeners had gotten such thick grass to grow out there in what was virtually desert.

"I don’t know. I damn well do know that I’m fucking sick of driving and my butt is killing me." He was back to full grumpy mode now. One thing for sure, this guy wasn’t a morning demon.

"Wanna pull over for a bit? Or you want me to drive?"

Faith bounced around in her seat slightly. He hadn’t let her drive because of the whole being drugged situation, but the slayer felt fine now. If she could get her hands on the steering wheel she’d make sure they were in Sunnydale within the half hour. Well her hand actually, since the broken left arm was still not exactly working at full power.

"Hell no. Last thing I need is my life flashing before my eyes. I can tell that you’re the kind who gets her kicks out of overtaking the big rigs while going over a hundred."

She answered him with a wicked grin. "I just like to make sure that things are never boring."

"Yeah, well, I prefer to survive my driving experiences thanks. Besides, I know a shortcut. Won’t be long now."

******

The librarian was in the book cage when Buffy threw open the doors of the library, leaving the trailing Xander to deal with them as best he could.

"Giles. We have to talk. Like now."

The tiny slayer stormed through the library and into her former watcher’s office. She was furious. Why was Giles letting things get so out of control? A vampire had set up a party joint right in the centre of town and they weren’t doing a single thing about it. Oz was a hideous slavering monster and she wasn’t even sure if they wanted her to kill him or save him. They were supposed to be busily researching what the Mayor was up to but they’d found out bugger all about it. Or if they had found anything they weren’t telling Buffy.

It had to stop. Either she was a slayer or she wasn’t. And if they wanted her to do their dirty work they were going to have to start trusting her. The blonde slayer paced back and forth in the tiny office, trying to think up arguments to convince Giles that things had to go back to the way they were. There could be no more constant supervision. No more regulation of conversation, with everyone sticking rigidly to their assigned topics. Buffy had accepted it until now, as a necessary punishment and passing stage in her re-admittance into the group of which she had once been the centre. But not anymore. The risks were too great to be playing these stupid games.

"I agree." The tall, greying Englishman stepped quickly into the room, shutting the door behind him. At first the slayer thought that she’d been thinking out loud, but then she realised that he was referring to her earlier assertion that they had to talk.

"Okay... Good." Giles walked passed the slayer and sat down at his desk.

"So, have you heard from her?"

Buffy had no idea who he was talking about. Unless it was the Willow vampire. But Giles knew that the slayer hadn’t been allowed anywhere near the Bronze. She settled for just looking confused. Giles sighed heavily, taking off his glasses in a gesture which always made Buffy’s heart sink.

"Faith has escaped from the hospital where the Council was holding her. She could be in Sunnydale as early as this evening."

The blonde slayer had to restrain herself from physically leaping with joy. She managed to limit herself to a huge grin. The news she had been waiting for for so long struck like a total bolt from the blue, particularly unexpected because Giles hadn’t said a single word to her about Faith since they’d got back. That had been Maggie’s specialised conversational area. But now the brunette slayer was no longer an abstract concept. She’d be here soon. It wouldn’t take Faith long to come for her. Buffy tingled with excitement. She could barely even remember what she had been so worried about just the moment before.

"Of course, this will naturally mean an increase in our security arrangements." Oh, of course. All this shit getting in the way of her doing her job.

"Fucking hell, Giles. I told you that I’d stay and I meant it. But your fucking stupid ‘security arrangements’ are just making the whole thing a pointless exercise."

Buffy!" The former watcher looked shocked. She decided that she’d better tone down her language. After all, she’d still have to work with Giles. Even once Faith was here to help her, they’d need someone to do all the boring watcher-work. Willow wasn’t likely to be bursting with voluntary enthusiasm. Buffy shook her head distractedly and tried her remember what she had been going to say when she first came in here.

"Sorry. I’m just saying that things are getting out of control and there’s no reason for me to be virtually out of action. We just can’t afford it. And you’re going to have to start telling me what’s going on. I can’t work unless I know what I’m dealing with."

Giles continued methodically rubbing his glasses. Buffy tried to fight down the anger and resentment. She stopped pacing the room and sat on the desk, looking intently at the Englishman. "Giles, please trust me. I just can’t keep doing this without knowing that you trust me." The librarian looked up and met her eyes sadly.

"Of course I trust you, Buffy. But we have to be careful. You’re still not fully recovered and you maybe susceptible --"

"Faith is not a disease." The slayer’s voice was hard and she glared down at Giles who looked away and shook his head.

"Doctor Doyle was right. She still has a hold on your mind. I can’t let you go into real danger in this state."

"But you can put the whole town in danger? Maybe even the world? This is totally wrong, Giles, and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise. My feelings for Faith will not affect my slaying. But the way you’ve been treating me already has." She paused for a moment before going on, somewhat more gently. "I ran into Oz last night."

"Really? Is he..? I mean, did you..?" Buffy shook her head slowly.

"No. I couldn’t do it, Giles. Because I wasn’t sure what you all wanted. The poor guy’s in really bad shape. I don’t know if he’d be all that human, even if you did manage to get him his soul back. I had no idea what you wanted me to do, so I just let him go."

"You let him go? That’s --" The librarian looked a little shocked.

"That’s why I need your help, Giles. You’ve got to start talking to me again. Like I’m a person, not some brainwashed idiot who needs retraining. We’ve got to get rid of this Willow vampire, rescue Oz if we can and then stop whatever the Mayor is planning."

"Actually, according to Angel’s surveillance, if we can stop the first of those problems we may be some way to neutralising the third." Giles was shuffling through some papers on his desk, looking for something.

"See, this is exactly what I’m talking about. VampWillow is working with the mayor? And Angel is back in town? Why do I not know this?" The librarian stopped his fidgeting. After a brief pause he looked up at the slayer.

"You’re right, Buffy. We’ve handled this badly. You’ve given us your word that you’ll stay --"

"Only about a million times, but who’s counting?" Buffy couldn’t restrain herself from having a bit of a pout.

" -- and we should accept that. I can’t speak for the others but I promise to be more expansive in the information I give you in the future. How about we all meet here this afternoon and everybody can share what they know? I’ll try and get in touch with Angel. And Wesley, as well, I suppose." The librarian was rubbing his temples, still obviously reluctant to let Buffy off her tight leash but apparently not willing to try and force her any further.

"Thanks. And if I promise on my mom’s life not to run with scissors, do you think we could do away with the 24-7 supervision?" Giles smiled slightly and nodded.

The slayer stood up and walked over to the window. She looked out at her former best friend, sitting slumped over a computer without even the slightest sign of interest or attention. Giles came up behind her and placed his hand gently on her shoulder.

"Give her time. She’s grieving. She lost her boyfriend. She’s thinks she’s lost you. But you did the right thing, in sparing Oz." Looking out at Willow, Buffy was still confused.

"I just don’t know what to do, Giles. After all Angel’s gone through...." They stood there silently for a few moments before the Englishman cleared his throat.

"You’re right. We really should move on the Bronze soon. Hopefully we will be able to capture Oz alive and deal with that problem later. But our most immediate difficulty now may be the Council." Buffy turned around and looked at him questioningly.

"The Council? I thought they promised to leave me alone, so long as I was still a fully functional slayer."

"Yes, yes. They had left town entirely. But now that Faith has escaped, and is almost certainly on her way here, they may reconsider your position." Buffy couldn’t help but smile at the reminder that the younger slayer would be with her soon.

"I guess we’ll just have to show them that they can’t afford to lose us again. And I can’t think of a better way than cleaning up the Bronze. But for now, I’ve got to go work on some bridges. And then I’ve got to go get all pretty." Giles was calling something else out to her as she left but Buffy didn’t stick around to hear what it was.

The blonde slayer had a definite spring in her step as she wandered out of Giles’ office and over to where Willow was sitting.

"Whatcha cooking up there?" With her exceedingly good mood Buffy forgot to be uncomfortable with the red-haired girl.

"Mayor’s files." Rather excessively to the point. Maybe being so perky wasn’t the best approach.

"How’s that going? Are you any closer to getting in?"

Willow just shrugged slightly. The slayer was starting to fear frostbite. She knew that she had to reach Willow soon or their friendship would be lost forever. It was strange. Buffy knew that Willow still cared about her, from what the others had told her. But the young witch sure was giving up precious little ground when the blonde slayer was actually present. Which meant that it was up to Buffy to make the running. And it was also up to Buffy to break the bad news.

"I saw him last night." Willow turned from the computer and looked at Buffy, her eyes full of fear.

"You didn’t..?"

"No, I let him go." The young witch closed her eyes briefly in relief and the slayer’s heart ached for her friend. "I won’t kill him unless it’s absolutely necessary, Will, I promise."

"Thank you. I’m still working on how to save him."

"I know you’ll come up with something, brains girl." Buffy got a heartening glimpse of a momentary smile before her friend turned back to the computer.

"I’d better get back to work."

"Don’t you have classes to go to? I mean I’m still on sick leave ‘cos of my mental illness and all, but Snyder’s got to come looking for you soon." Willow looked up at her friend in confusion.

"Didn’t you know? Snyder’s dead. Along with half the staff. My evil double apparently has a particular fetish for the blood of teachers." Buffy pulled a face of surprised disgust. But then she saw the tension in her friend’s body, and the guilt in the young witch’s face.

"We’re going to stop her, Will. Soon. I’m just goingto work things out now."

"Good. Can I come? I want to tear her apart --" The slayer’s eyes widened. She guessed that killing Willow’s boyfriend could be the worst mistake that vampire had ever made.

"We’ll see. The last thing I want is to be putting you in danger." Willow looked disappointed and turned away once more. Buffy had a sudden flash of memory. A striking vision of the last time her best friend had been left behind. She shook it off. "You can come, Will. Just promise to take care of yourself, okay?"

Willow didn’t turn around again, but nodded silently. The slayer was a little disappointed at this reaction. "I’ll call you later."

"Sure." Buffy walked out of the library, her good mood momentarily dampened at the realisation of just how hard it was going to be to rebuild things with her former best friend.******

Lucianus’ short-cut only added an extra hour to their trip. By the time the yellow Cadillac cruised past the sign reading ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ the sun was well up and the day was looking like it was going to be a hot one. Faith was just about clawing at the windows but she was doing her best to try and act patient. The demon was in a foul mood and she didn’t want to piss him off too badly. His financial resources were likely to come in mighty handy when she wanted to get out of this dumpy town again. And this time she would not be stupid enough to want to come back.

"I know a way skanky motel with cheap rooms, but they may not be happy to see me..." Lucianus grunted out a laugh.

"Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a place for us to lay low for a while." The slayer didn’t reply, suddenly tensing in her seat and sitting upright and absolutely still. They were driving past Sunnydale High. Buffy was probably in there. The blonde slayer would be sitting in class, bored out of her mind. That was really not how things should be on a day like this, perfect weather for barbecuing. Faith decided that the situation badly needed rectifying and leant over to grab one of her jackets off the back seat.

"You know Buffy’s phone number?" She asked the demonsitting next to her. He gave her a puzzled look.

"Sure, I got the digits. We can call her as soon as we get settled in. But I’ve got to tell you about what’s going down here before --" Faith grinned at him wickedly and put her hand on the door handle.

"Call me at Buffy’s. Just give me a few hours first, okay?" Without further ado the slayer opened the car door and half dropped, half rolled out onto the road. It didn’t hurt too much. Fortunately, she was wearing jeans so she didn’t get any unsightly gravel rash on her legs. Unfortunately for her upper body, she was only wearing a tank top, leaving her arms somewhat susceptible to contact with the ground. Still, Faith balled up as best she could and managed to protect her damaged arm fairly well. Probably lucky for her that Lucianus was such a damn slow driver. He did managed to get up a good tyre squeal on his emergency braking though. The slayer bounced up onto her feet and turned to grin at the demon as he emerged from her car, hurling obscenities.

"What the fuck are you doing you psycho? Get back in the fucking car." Faith just smiled at him and pulled her jacket somewhat gingerly over her damaged arm.

"Call me at Buffy’s." She crossed the road and headed towards the school.

*********

Buffy’s good mood was back in full force as she headed out into the bright Californian sunshine. As she walked through of the school, however, she was a little confused about what to do next. Where would Faith go looking for her? Would she look for Buffy at all, or would she be too insecure? The older slayer decided that she would head towards her house. That would be the first place Faith would probably look for her. The runaway slayer wouldn’t be mad keen to come to the school, she was sure. Buffy began to worry about what was going to happen when she told the younger slayer that the two of them had to stay. No way was Faith going to be happy about working with Giles and the others. It was probably going to be a struggle for the older slayer just to convince her to leave them in one piece. But once she knew what they were up against, surely Faith would see that they had to help. Buffy hoped. She knew she’d just have to play up the angle that there was a whole lot of fighting to be done here in Sunnydale. That had always been the best way to get the younger slayer on board. She really didn’t want to think about what would happen if Faith just decided that Buffy wasn’t worth hanging around here for.

The blonde slayer’s pace slowed somewhat, in line with the depressingly down thoughts her brain was currently throwing her. She was so distracted that it wasn’t till he was almost upon her that Buffy heard Xander’s sneakers pounding along behind her. Reluctantly, the slayer stopped at the top of the steps to the front entrance of the school, turning to acknowledge his somewhat plaintive cries. He was panting by the time he caught up.

"What, is that famous slayer supersonic hearing taking the day off or something? I’ve been calling you ever since you shot out of the library."

"Sorry, I’m a little distracted, I guess." Buffy felt in her pockets and dug out her sunglasses. The glare from Xander’s olive green and fluro yellow shirt really was unbearable.

"So, where’s the fire?"

"What?" Did they expect up to take up fire warden duties now, too? Because that really was more responsibility than she was looking for.

"Not literally. What’s your rush, is all I meant. Giles told me --." Behind the dark lenses the slayer’s green eyes flashed with anger.

"Sent you to follow me, you mean. I can’t believe it. After everything I just said to him. What more does he want from me? Go back and tell him I quit. I can’t take this anymore." Buffy spun on her heels and headed off down the stairs.

"Hey, chill out, Buff." Xander tried to keep up with her, but stumbled over his own shoes and ended up rolling painfully down to the concrete steps. He ended up flat on his back on the sidewalk.

"Xander, are you okay?" The slayer hurried down to where the groaning boy was lying in a tangled but brightly coloured heap of limbs.

"Oh, yeah. No problem. This particular sidewalk and I are old, old friends. We’ve been estranged for a while though, so bumping into each other like this is a little awkward." Buffy grabbed him on the forearm and hauled him effortlessly to his feet.

"Sorry. It’s just that Giles is making me so crazy with all this supervision bullshit."

Xander was brushing himself off and rearranging histhreads. "Yeah, well, you’d better give the old guy a break. He didn’t send me out her to stalk you. He just told me to tell you to be careful, and ‘remember who really cares about you’. Personally I didn’t have the faintest idea what he was raving on about. So, as usual I’m looking to my favourite slayer for enlightenment." The young man clasped his hands together and leaned towards her in a familiar gesture.

Buffy really didn’t want to talk about this with him, but knew that there wasn’t going to be any possible avoiding of the topic soon anyway. "Faith’s escaped." It took a moment to sink in. Things always did with Xander.

"Escaped? As in ‘Psycho slayer headed this way’?"

The blonde slayer shook her head. There was no point going on really. Buffy hadn’t really been comfortably with Xander ever since she’d heard that Faith had taken pity on him. She really didn’t need to hear him running down the dark-haired slayer at this point in time.

"No, the person I’m in love with is headed this way. And I’m off to go find her." As far as she was concerned their conversation was over. Unfortunately, Xander didn’t take the hint. What was it with these people and their endless need to express their opinions on matters which they knew nothing about?

"You’re kidding yourself, Buffy, if you think she cares about you. She’s using you for something, and when she gets it, she’ll dump you like last week’s trash."

The slayer reacted from her gut, immediately raising her hand to punch the concerned expression off Xander’s face. Her fist was mere inches from reminding him of the joys that a broken nose can bring when she stopped herself. As satisfying as that would be, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. Instead Buffy attempted to calm herself by taking a few deep breaths. She removed her sunglasses and fiddled with them, in an unconscious parody of the habit apparently learned at birth by every member ofthe Council.

"You’re wrong. I wouldn’t even know how to begin going into how wrong you are. I know that Faith never loved you, so you couldn’t possibly understand how good that feels. I’m sorry for you, but if you ever say anything against her again, I won’t even try to stop myself."

"Buffy, I --."

Suddenly, their argument was rudely interrupted by the screeching of car tyres. Xander both stopped mid-sentence and the two of them looked at each other for a brief moment. Than they turned and ran towards the source of the noise, which had come from around the corner on the other side of the school. The slayer made it to the corner first, just in time to see a bright yellow Cadillac speeding up the road towards her. Buffy’s heart stopped beating for a second when she realised that, whoever was driving Faith’s beloved car, it wasn’t her friend. The car passed her, tyres still squealing, rounded the corner and took off. Buffy looked down the road to see what had happened and it was only then that she saw the lone figure coming down the sidewalk towards her. Saw and immediately recognised.

"Faith." She almost whispered it to herself as she stood frozen to the spot, watching the dark-haired slayer approach. Buffy stood there for a few seconds, which allowed Xander to catch up.

"Hey, wasn’t that..?" His question became unnecessary as he followed the blonde slayer’s intense gaze down the street. "Faith." Xander said the word such intense hatred that it shocked Buffy out of her shock.

This was the kind of intense hostility which the slayers were going to encounter constantly from now on. The older slayer was suddenly acutely aware of just how hopeless her idea that her former friends and Faith could possibly work together was. It was going to be two camps, albeit two camps with a common enemy.

And Buffy had to make it absolutely clear which one she was in. As she had feared, the younger slayer was insecure and was currently moving towards Buffy at not much above a snail’s pace. Slowly she smiled to herself.

"Faith!" The blonde slayer ran towards the taller girl and threw herself at the taller girl, wrapping her arms around the dark-haired slayer’s neck. "I’ve missed you so much." Before Faith had a chance to respond, Buffy had captured her mouth and was using it to give a thorough and undeniable reaffirmation of her love for the younger girl. The dark-haired slayer’s lips parted easily, allowing full access to Buffy’s desperately probing tongue. The tiny slayer ran her hands through Faith’s long dark hair, pulling their bodies even closer together. After some time she slowed her attentions on the other girl’s mouth, allowing them both to take in some much needed oxygen.

Buffy opened her eyes and noticed that Faith was wincing slightly. The blonde slayer moved her head back an inch or so to get a good look into the younger girl’s dark eyes. "Are you okay?" Faith smiled and brought her right hand up to gently brush Buffy’s cheek.

"Are you kidding? After that welcome how could I be anything but totally on top of the world. With similar issues about a lack of oxygen, but I can deal." The blonde slayer could feel the heat rising to her cheeks.

"I was just happy to see you is all." Faith’s eyes shone down at her, reflecting back her own excitement.

Buffy moved her arms down to hug the taller girl tightly around her shoulders. This time there was no doubt that there was a sharp intake of air and a slight wincing. The tiny slayer released her hold immediately and took a step back. Faith smiled at her somewhat sheepishly, unable to entirely hide the fact that she was in pain.

"It’s... my arm’s still a little below par. I’m fine, really. Just isn’t quite up to enthusiastic hugs from super strong slayers, yet."

"I’m so sorry." Buffy tried to move further away from the injured slayer, not wanting to do any more damage.

Faith grinned at the smaller girl and wrapped her right arm around Buffy’s shoulders, pulling her into a gentle but strong embrace. Then she whispered into the blonde slayer’s ear.

"I think I can forgive you." The tickle of Faith’s breath on her ear and neck sent shivers down Buffy’s spine. Faith ran her hand up Buffy’s neck, lifting her face towards her before leaning down and giving the older girl the most gentle and tender kiss she had ever experienced. The blonde slayer moaned slightly and leaned into Faith’s body. Her knees seemed to melt out from under her as the dark-haired slayer turned her attention to Buffy’s neck. They were the most exquisitely loving caresses she had ever known and they were teasing Buffy almost to the point of insanity.

Acting without the ability to really think about what she was doing, the older slayer ran her hand all the way down Faith’s side, chuckling slightly when she was rewarded by a slight loss of restraint from the younger girl. Faith’s lips returned to meet Buffy’s once again and the dark-haired slayer’s tongue was now wrapping itself around her own. Still not satisfied, Buffy decided to push things a little further. She slid her hand under the dark-haired slayer’s shirt, careful to maintain a strict fingertips only policy, despite her own intense desire for a greater level of contact with the silky soft skin she found there. The older slayer’s return of Faith’s earlier teasing was rewarded as she traced her way slowly up her ribs. The taller girl appeared to lose control of her tongue which was darting in and out of Buffy’s mouth. Just as the smaller slayer’s fingers finally made it up to the destination they had been slowly seeking out, Faith broke off with a gasp.

"Oh yeah, you’re forgiven." Buffy let her hand trace its way back down to rest demurely on the dark-haired slayer’s waist and opened her eyes. The two slayers stood smiling for a few moments as they attempted to regain a more regular breathing pattern. "So, do you want to go... talk or something?" Buffy gave Faith a confused look. "Well, I mean, we’d better go somewhere more..."

Unusually flustered the younger slayer’s eyes darted around her, reminding Buffy that the they were in fact currently standing on the sidewalk right outside her school in the middle of the day. With Xander just a few metres away, undoubtedly watching with interest. Oops. Faith was right, they really should find someplace a little more private.

"Well, my mom won’t be home for a few hours. And there’s plenty of food in the fridge." The dark-haired slayer grinned wickedly.

"You’re right, talking does make me hungry. You gonna say goodbye to your little wimp friend there?" Buffy turned around in the younger girl’s embrace and looked at Xander, who was still standing on the street corner. It seemed he had lost the ability to move any part of his body whatsoever. The blonde slayer smiled to herself as she felt Faith’s arm tighten around her protectively. She called out to Xander.

"Tell Giles I’ll see him later. At the library. And don’t worry, I’ll be very careful." Without waiting for his reply, Buffy grabbed Faith’s hand in her own and the two of them set off down the street at a rather rapid rate.

******

Buffy was having some trouble getting the key into the lock of the front door. Perhaps because Faith was standing behind her, with her good arm wrapped around the tiny slayer’s waist, busily tasting her exposed shoulders. The dark-haired slayer chuckled to herself as Buffy moaned in frustration, once again dropping her key ring. She momentarily thought about releasing the blonde slayer in order to speed up the process of getting them indoors, but immediately dismissed the idea from her mind. Faith never wanted to let go of Buffy again for as long as she lived. If there had been any part of her heart which hadn’t already belonged to the blonde slayer it was lost as soon as Buffy had coming running down the street to greet her in that incredibly enjoyable manner. That had been all the proof that Faith had needed. Nothing was going to come between them. Faith was absolutely walking on air.

Buffy began to bend down to try and retrieve the keys and Faith bent down with her. The tiny slayer half turned and looked at the dark-haired slayer with an adorable attempt at discipline.

If you don’t behave yourself, we’ll never get in the house."

"Oh really," Faith purred into an accessible ear, "and wouldn’t your neighbours enjoy the show." Buffy bit her lip, in a familiar gesture which meant that she was trying to stop herself from giggling. The taller slayer quickly leant forward and planted a brief kiss on Buffy’s nose before letting go of the older girl and taking two steps back. "I don’t want to be blamed for getting us arrested for lewd behaviour."

The blonde slayer turned quickly and finally won her struggle with the front door. As it flew open Buffy turned around, grabbed the front of Faith’s jacket and pulled her into the house. The tiny slayer slammed the door shut with her foot as she attempted to grab Faith, but the younger slayer was too quick for her. She ducked under Buffy’s arms and popped back up again with a wicked grin.

"Didn’t you say something about food?"

Buffy groaned infrustration and Faith lifted her eyebrows slightly before moving forward quickly. She grabbed Buffy around her shoulders and knees, lifting the tiny slayer up into a reclining position in her arms.

"Faith! Your arm--"

"Don’t sweat it, B. It’s fine. Now I’m trying to remember... was I hungry or...?" Buffy laughed and wrapped her arms around Faith’s neck as taller slayer carried her incredibly enjoyable load up to Buffy’s bedroom.

"You know, I could get used to this. Although I have to say that you’re suspiciously accomplished at it."

They had made it to the top of the stairs and Faith’s arm was starting to hurt a little. She walked quickly into Buffy’s bedroom, not wanting to drop the smaller slayer. That would be one sure way to ruin the moment. Fortunately, her arm held out long enough to let her to gently deposit Buffy on the bed. Faith kneeled down next to the blonde slayer, losing herself in Buffy’s incredibly green eyes.

"Yeah, well there was this one chick, got herself all beaten up. I ended up kind of good at carrying her crippled ass around." She grinned wickedly at Buffy’s outraged expression and sat back on the floor to undo her boots. It was times like this that Faith could appreciate the only redeemable feature of the blonde slayer’s typical footwear. Quick and easy removal.

Buffy had rolled over onto her back, lying very still and pouting, when Faith finally emerged triumphant from the battle of the boot. The younger slayer crouched next to her and reached out to brush a strand of blond hair away from her face. She was rather amazed to see that Buffy looked genuinely pissed off.

"I was only joking, B. There’s no ass I’d rather carry around." Buffy rolled her head to the side and Faith was again struck by the blonde slayer’s beauty. She still couldn’t read Buffy’s expression, though.

"I... Yeah, I know. I never did thank you for everything you did for me." Faith grinned and ran her fingers down the side of Buffy’s neck, not stopping till she reached the strap of her singlet top. This she took between two of her fingers.

"Well, there’s no time like the present." The blonde slayer smiled slightly. She reached over and tangled her fingers in Faith’s long dark hair. The younger slayer’s body leapt at the contact, just as it did every time Buffy touched her.

"No, I mean it. You saved my life. More than once. And you didn’t get mad when I barfed up hamburgers in your car." Faith moved her head away slightly to loosen Buffy’s grasp on it then brought it back quickly to catch the still hovering fingers between her lips. Her answer was consequently somewhat muffled.

"When I said we should go somewhere to talk I didn’t mean... talk." She raised her eyebrows at the reclining slayer and ran her tongue across the tips of the fingers she had so skilfully captured.

Buffy’s smile broadened."Oh really. Well, maybe you’d better show me exactly what you did have in mind." That was enough of an invitation for Faith. She leapt up onto the bed, rolling the smaller slayer over as she did so. Buffy laughed and somehow managed to manoeuvre herself so that she was lying on top of the younger girl.

"Hey --" Faith’s protests were cut off abruptly as Buffy kissed her. Of all the kisses the dark-haired slayer had known in her short life this was the most seeringly passionate. Buffy’s tongue seemed to be everywhere at once, tasting her mouth, her neck, her earlobes. It was all the younger girl could do to keep up. Somehow she managed to do so, as well as maintaining the concentration to run her hands over the gorgeous butt she had been joking about earlier. Faith squirmed under the delicious pressure of the blonde slayer’s body lying all along her own. Realising that she had to do something about the excessive clothing currently involved in the situation, and quickly, Faith reluctantly moved her hands up to dispose of the blonde slayer’s top.

She grabbed hold of the thin material and pulled it up. Buffy moaned as Faith’s fingers brushed against her breasts and raised herself off the younger girl long enough to enable total removal of the unwanted garment. The dark-haired slayer gasped at the beauty of the half-naked girl on her knees above her and tried to sit up. She was prevented by a firm push forcing her back onto the bed.

"Now, it strikes me that something here isn’t quite fair." Buffy had one knee firmly planted on either of Faith’s hips and was squirming above the younger slayer apparently unconsciously as she spoke. It was driving Faith wild but she forced herself to remain still for the moment, waiting to see what Buffy had in mind. "Could it be that, while you’re getting quite a show, all I get to see is your, admittedly stunning,face?"

Faith was still fully clothed, having not had time to even take off her jacket since meeting up with the other slayer. But that was a problem she was very willing to rectify. Still lying flat on her back, the dark-haired slayer began to pull her arms out of the loose denim jacket. Again she was stopped by Buffy.

"Please, allow me." The blonde slayer grabbed Faith’s hands and pulled her upright. Moving with typical slayer speed, Buffy’s hands were suddenly around the younger girl’s shoulders, pulling away the offending clothing. With Faith’s assistance, the tiny slayer removed the jacket entirely and tossed it to the floor. Faith remained sitting up, with Buffy straddling her. The blonde slayer allowed Faith to kiss her for a few amazing seconds before tossing her back to the bed. Grinning wickedly, Buffy loomed over the younger girl.

"We’re still not even."

As Buffy looked down at her, however, Faith saw the expression in her green eyes shift. What was wrong? Faith didn’t think that she would survive if things stopped at this stage. Following the older slayer’s gaze, she realised what it was that had disturbed Buffy. Her arm. It still looked pretty bad, with the stitches and scars and all.

"Umm, it’s not as bad as it looks, honest." Buffy’s eyes shifted back to meet her own dark ones again and Faith was surprised to see that they were brimming with tears.

"Faith, I..." This was not good. Not good at all. Buffy was kneeling over her, wearing nothing but a pair of white capri pants. Crying over past injuries was not exactly what Faith had in mind as an ideal activity at this point, even if said injuries were caused by the blonde slayer’s son of a bitch ex-boyfriend. The dark-haired slayer lifted herself up and hugged Buffy closely to her.

"It’s nothing, B, I swear. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t stop them taking you." The older slayer snuggled her head into Faith’s shoulder.

"You’ll stay with me, won’t you Faith?" She asked the question in a very small, uncertain voice and the younger girl wrinkled her forehead, confused about what exactly Buffy meant. Whatever.

"Of course I’ll stay with you, go with you, dance with you, eat with you, whatever the hell you want. Anything, Buffy." The older slayer lifted her head again. She took Faith’s face in her hands and looked deep into her eyes at such close proximity that their noses were brushing against each other. The dark-haired slayer almost melted into a puddle in the middle of the bed.

"I love you, Faith." Then their lips met again, and things were back on track.

Happily, the blonde slayer quickly regained her aggressive mood and began pulling at Faith’s tank top roughly until it almost tore. After a considerable struggle they finally managed to get it off with as minimal loss of contact as possible. And then, suddenly, Faith was down on her back again. This time, however, Buffy didn’t waste any time with meaningless banter. She appeared to be determined to devour her way all the way down Faith’s torso, starting from the younger girl’s neck. Sometimes biting, sometimes sucking, sometimes just barely brushing her lips over Faith’s skin so that she couldn’t even really be sure that there was any contact at all.

It seemed that Buffy was the absolute master of delicious agony. And Faith loved every second of it. She was unable to do much more than lie there moaning with her head thrown back and her hands rhythmically needing the taut muscles of Buffy’s shoulders and upper back. Just as the dark-haired slayer was contemplating in amazement the fact that Buffy was about to make her come without even so much as touching her below the waist, the blonde slayer stopped. Faith groaned in frustration but was silenced by a single finger placed across her mouth. She opened her eyes and looked down the length of her body to see Buffy perched with her chin just inches above the fly of Faith’s jeans. Smiling teasingly.

Faith knew that she should try and regain control of the situation. She should be doing this for Buffy, not the other way around. It was Buffy who deserved to have her body worshipped and lavished and her soul warmed with love.

"Buffy.." The blonde slayer raised an eyebrow and, never breaking eye contact, began to undo the button fly jeans with her teeth. Effectively putting an end to the dark-haired slayer’s protestations. It’s hard to argue when your mouth is only capable of making ecstatic groaning sounds and your mind has been turned to mush.

Faith was in stunned amazement that anyone as wonderful as Buffy would even give her the time of day, let alone be running her tongue up the inside of her thighs. This, however, was exactly what Buffy was doing at that present moment, having somehow managed to remove Faith’s jeans and panties entirely without the younger girl even registering it. The dark-haired slayer didn’t register a whole lot more for quite some time. Just the amazing feeling of every cell in her body crying out in joy as her whole brain exploded in array of colours. And then her consciousness returned and Buffy was kissing her mouth. Faith opened her eyes to look at the beautiful girl lying next to her.

"God, Buffy.... I love you." Faith lifted her hand to trace the perfect lines of the older girls face with her fingertips. Buffy just smiled and buried her way down into Faith’s shoulder, not showing any immediate intention of moving. Which would not do at all. As far as Faith was concerned, they were just getting started.

Slowly and deliberately she extended the range of her hand movements until they were tracing a pattern down the entire side of Buffy’s body with feather-like gentleness. Faith watched as the blonde slayer’s eyes slowly drifted shut in pleasure. The younger slayer smiled and began to roll Buffy onto her back, at the same time silencing any attempts at protest by thoroughly tying the tiny slayer’s tongue up with her own.

Buffy moaned, responding immediately by thrusting her chest upwards so that her breasts brushed against Faith’s own. Again the dark-haired girl was rocked by the amazing sensation of contact with Buffy, and again it inspired in her an absolute devotion. Never, ever, would anything come between them as long as she was alive. But all that was coming between them for the moment was the remainder of Buffy’s clothing. Faith reluctantly left off her rhythmic stroking of the blonde slayer’s torso, trailing her hand slowly down to the top of the problem pants. She fumbled with the zipper, not helped by Buffy’s clumsily ineffective attempts to assist, as their tongues continued their frantic duel. Eventually Faith realised that they were never going to get any further at the current rate and broke off the kiss.

With Buffy’s whimpering encouragement spurring her on, Faith hurriedly slipped off the lower half of the blonde slayer’s outfit and returned to her position on top of the smaller girl. As slowly as she could Faith set about making love to every part of Buffy’s body, hoping to give the blonde slayer the same sense of exquisite agony that she herself had been treated to earlier. And, judging from the screams the older girl made when Faith finally brought her to climax, it seemed that she managed to do a pretty good job.

Afterwards, the dark-haired slayer lay contentedly awake, embracing the smaller girl and slowly running her fingers through her soft blonde hair. Buffy was similarly engaged, tracing out the lines of Faith’s tattoo over and over with one finger tip. Faith was torn between not wanting to spoil the moment and saying everything that she needed to say to Buffy. Sighing, the younger slayer decided that she’d put off the talking for too long to let it wait any longer. She gently kissed Buffy on the forehead and waited for the response.

"What was that for?"

"Because I love you. And to thank you for saving my life." Faith smiled unconsciously as the blonde slayer wrinkled her forehead into an adorable expression of puzzlement.

"But I didn’t... It was you. You saved my life." She shook her head and looked seriously into Buffy’s amazing green eyes.

"No, B. Before you were hurt, everything was going wrong for me. Like, the whole shebang. But when you came for me at the docks you showed me that maybe there was a chance for me. If you cared about me, maybe life was worth living. And when you were hurt because of that, I couldn’t avoid what I’d known all along." Buffy frowned slightly and looked down. Faith felt the tiny slayer snuggle deeper into her shoulder once more. The younger girl was starting to suspect that she was going to be spending a lot of time there.

"I don’t buy that. Whatever had happened back there, I don’t think you would have left. And I don’t think that you would have turned bad. I know that you don’t have it in you." Faith smiled at the older girl’s amazing belief in her and kissed the top of Buffy’s head in thanks. But she wasn’t quite convinced.

"What about that Alan dude?"

The blonde slayer reacted immediately, letting go of Faith and sitting up on the bed. The dark-haired slayer’s heart sank and she mentally kicked herself half to death for mentioning that whole scene. Not a smart move. She forced herself not to look up at the naked Buffy hovering over her.

"Listen to me, Faith. I know that you pretended not to care about that. I know that you did your best to try and convince me that it didn’t hurt you. But I know for a fact that it did. I know that you’re sorry and you’re going to be sorry forever. You’ve got too good a heart for it to be otherwise. And I don’t hate you for it. I love you for it." Faith slowly raised her head in confusion.

"I --." Buffy cut her off.

"You woke me one night, you were having a nightmare about it. Asking me to forgive you. Which I did, and still do. You made a mistake, Faith. But you’re sorry and we can get past it. Everything that happened after that, Xander and everything, I understand how you felt. You thought you were alone. I would have got through to you eventually. But you got through to yourself, and then you came through for me."

Faith was entirely unable to respond. She couldn’t believe that Buffy could see her like that. Good. Faith had never been good. It still wasn’t a status that she was particularly interested in achieving. But, she had to admit, it didn’t feel to shabby knowing that that was how Buffy saw her. Faith pulled the older girl back down and embraced her tightly."Thanks, B."

They lay there perfectly still, just revelling in the feeling of being wrapped around each other, for a few minutes. Until Faith’s stomach growled rather loudly. The dark-haired slayer blushed slightly and tried to ignore it but felt Buffy laughing.

"I thought all that talk about food was a joke."

"Sorry. I haven’t eaten I was busted out of the Council’s combined hospital-prison facility." The blonde slayer lifted her head and began to stir slowly.

"You must be starved. I’ll go fix you something to eat." Faith murmured a protest and tried to pull Buffy back down.

"I’m fine." But the older girl was determined. She gave the dark-haired slayer a quick kiss, which was almost enough to drive all thoughts of food out of Faith’s head, before jumping out of her bed and wandering over to her closet. Buffy pulled on her robe. A very disappointing development indeed.

"You just lie there. I’ll make you..," both girls looked at the alarm clock beside Buffy’s bed, which indicated that it was twenty minutes to two, "late lunch in bed."

"No deal, B." Reluctantly, Faith rolled off the edge of the bed and landed on her feet. "Where you go, I go, remember." The taller girl walked over to Buffy and caught her around the waist.

"Really? And how far do you plan on taking this little pledge?" The blonde slayer looked up at her teasingly and Faith knew that she’d make good on her promise even if she had to go to hell and back.

"Oh, I’d say far." She leant down and caught Buffy’s lips, leading to another few minutes of slow and thorough exploration. Until Faith’s stomach made it’s emptiness known again. They pulled back without letting go of their hold on each other’s waist. "We’d better go feed this monster. And you can tell me all about what’s going on here while you’re cooking." This suggestion was apparently an amusing one because Buffy just laughed at it.

"You’d have to be pretty near starvation to eat my cooking. And besides, how can I cook and talk at the same time?" The blonde slayer grinned up at Faith. She knew when she was beaten.

"Fine. I’ll cook, you talk."

"Okay, but you’d better put some clothes on or my narrative may be a remarkably short one."

"Oh, really..." Faith pulled the tiny slayer close to her. Buffy laughed but turned her head away.

"No more of that or we’ll be here all afternoon." Which didn’t sound like an entirely bad idea to the younger slayer, until her stomach growled a third time. Reluctantly she let go of Buffy and began to retrieve her scattered clothing.

"Okay, but I’d like to register my vote for one super fast meal." Buffy laughed and headed out of the room.

"I’ll go warm up the stove."

Faith smiled to herself and got dressed as quickly as she could.

***

Buffy walked slowly down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen. The blonde slayer’s feeling of all-over-tingleliness was somehow simultaneously combined with a state of complete and utter relaxation. She hummed happily to herself as she opened the fridge to inspect its contents.

Buffy’s eager eyes drifted immediately towards the whipped cream sitting in a large bowl on the top shelf. She could almost hear it begging to be spread all over Faith’s body and licked off one mouthful at a time. She reached out her hand and dipped one finger into the bowl, sucking on it thoughtfully while she surveyed the remainder of the fridge. Nothing else in there looked half as much fun. Considering the noises that Faith’s stomach had been making earlier, however, it would probably be a good idea to feed it substantial something fairly soon. Buffy decided on eggs. Eggs were good. Even she could cook eggs. And, undeniably their most desirable quality, eggs were quick.

Buffy grabbed the packet of eggs in one hand and used her finger to scoop up another mouthful of whipped cream. She turned around and shut the door with her foot, her finger still in her mouth. Faith was sitting on the kitchen bench.

"How did you --?"

"Hey, what’s this? Snacking before meals? Or is there something in that there fridge that I should be jealous of?" The dark-haired slayer reached out and grabbed Buffy’s wrist, gently removing the older girl’s finger from her mouth for inspection. Buffy grinned as she watched Faith pretend to study her hand for clues of who or what the tasty morsel in the fridge could be. The taller slayer looked up at Buffy, her dark eyes sparkling. "No visible clues. Looks like I’ll have to move on to a second stage investigation."

The blonde slayer grinned as Faith raised her eyebrow and slowly brought Buffy’s finger up to her mouth. Evidently she intended to conduct a very thorough investigation of the scene of the crime, using her particularly talented tongue. Buffy fell back slightly to lean against the fridge for support as the investigation continued to proceed at a very casual rate.

Finally, Faith released her finger with a triumphant smirk. "I think I’ve found myself a prime suspect. One particularly fun member of the dairy family." The younger girl jumped down off the bench and reached past Buffy to open the fridge. "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected... Were you planning on keeping this all to yourself, B?"

The blonde slayer returned Faith’s smirk. "Well, I was planning on making it a surprise, but now you’ve gone and ruined it --" The dark-haired slayer slammed the fridge door shut immediately and took a step away.

"Ruined what?" Buffy smiled at the younger girl’s adoption of a very convincing innocent expression.

"So, what’s for late lunch?" Buffy held up the carton she was still holding.

"Eggs."

"Eggs? Jeez, B, I’m hungry here, not mildly peckish."

Shaking her head, Faith conducted a more thorough search of the fridge and eventually emerged brandishing a large steak. The Summers family dinner menu was about to be thrown out the window. Which was not something Buffy was particularly sad about. "Now, this is more like it. No offence, B, but at times like this you just can’t top a bit of red meat." The blonde slayer smiled and got out a frying pan. Faith must be as starving as Buffy had been after her own escape from hospital. Suddenly struck by a thought, she turned to look seriously at the dark-haired slayer.

"Are you going to be all right with this, hon? I mean, maybe you should eat something light first..." She drifted off as she became distracted by the look of total adoration Faith was giving her.

"I’ll be fine. Under my abs of steel lurks a stomach of iron. But if you’re worried about it we can do the eggs as an appetiser."

Buffy smiled sheepishly, somewhat embarrassed by her mother-like behaviour. "Sorry, I was just thinking --" She was interrupted by that increasingly familiar but still earth-shaking feeling of being wrapped in Faith’s strong arms.

"You were just caring about me. And, believe me, that’s something that I never want you to stop doing."

Buffy returned the taller girl’s hug and the two of them stood perfectly still for a few peaceful moments before Faith’s stomach interrupted them yet again. Buffy laughed and broke the embrace.

"I’ll do the eggs while you work on your slab of cow."

Buffy cooked the omelette quickly and the younger girl devoured her portion in seconds. Which was sweet of Faith, because it really was a decidedly untasty concoction. The blonde slayer sat on a stool and played with her eggs as she watched Faith cooking the huge slab of meat which had been intended for her and her mother’s dinner. Buffy grinned to herself as she imagined the look on her mother’s face when she learned where exactly her steak had gone. She couldn’t wait. Which made her feel a little guilty, and more than a little immature.

If Buffy started rubbing people’s noses in their relationship like that Maggie would be on her back about "classic cases of adolescent rebelliousness" before she had a chance to punch the meddling doctor out. Besides, that wasn’t the best way to deal with this thing. Handling her mother was going to be an entirely different issue to dealing with the Scooby Gang. There was no way Buffy could cut her mother out of her life. The fact was that she would have to find a way to get her mother to accept Faith, or at least not try to have her locked up. Which was going to take some co-operation from the dark-haired slayer.

Buffy’s train of thought was abruptly interrupted when she was hit square in the forehead by a flying grape. "Hey!" She looked up at Faith, who was standing in front of the fridge grinning mischievously.

"A piece of flying fruit for your thoughts?"

"Sorry, guess I drifted off. Just kind of a lot to take in at the moment." The taller girl’s expression changed and her gaze drifted downwards, looking at the floor rather than meeting Buffy’s eyes.

"Umm, well, you know, there’s no pressure or anything. If you want to take things slow..." Buffy shook her head adamantly. It was only natural that Faith would be insecure, she supposed, since everyone in town seemed to be convinced that she was more dangerous than Sunnydale’s entire vampire and demon populations combined. The blonde slayer just hoped that the younger girl would get over it soon.

"Faith, the only regret I’ve got is that this meal is taking way too long to prepare." Faith’s dark eyes looked up happily again.

"Well, it’s done now." She put a plate in front of Buffy and slid onto the stool next to the older girl. On the plate was a rather delicious-looking salad, created out of the odds and ends which had been lurking in Buffy’s fridge, and a very large piece of meat. The blonde slayer shook her head and smiled. Who would have known that she would have found so many of Faith’s hidden skills in the one day?

"So, are you done thinking yet? Ready to tell me what’s going on?" The blonde slayer reluctantly forced her mind back to reality once more and gave Faith the low-down on the latest happenings on the Hellmouth. The dark-haired girl greeted the news of the existence of a Willow Vampire with a noise that sounded suspiciously like a suppressed laugh. But aside from that little outburst she listened carefully to all Buffy told her and made outraged faces in all the right places.

Like when Buffy was sounding off about the ridiculous treatment she had been subjected to in the younger slayer’s absence. It looked like Faith was pretty keen to stay and take out the VampWillow. Which was one good thing. How the return of the dual-slayer operation was going to work out with the Scooby Gang was another question entirely. While she talked Buffy picked absently at the salad. When she had related everything up to the point where she told Giles off and stormed out of the school the blonde slayer rose to get them a drink.

"Are you going to eat that?"

"Hmm?" Buffy turned around to see Faith eagerly eyeing off her barely touched steak. "No, no, go ahead." She wasn’t that hungry and it was obvious that the younger girl’s stomach was still not satisfied.

"Thanks, B. So, that’s a heavy deal with the VampWillow and the Mayor and all. You got any idea what they’re up to?" Buffy shook her head and handed Faith a glass of orange juice.

"I’m supposed to be having a meeting with Giles and everyone this afternoon. Hopefully I’ll get the full story then." Faith was looking at her in amazement, with both eyebrows raised.

"A meeting, B? Can you spell lame? I say we move on the Bronze tonight." The younger slayer stabbed a piece of Buffy’s steak with her fork as she spoke and bit down on it decisively when she was done.

"I don’t know, this Willow vampire thing sounds kind of --" The blonde slayer was interrupted by the sudden ringing of the telephone. She got up to answer it and rolled her eyes when she heard the very worried voice of her mother at the other end.

"Buffy? What are you doing home? Shouldn’t you be at school with Mr Giles?"

"It’s okay, mom. Giles gave me the afternoon off for good behaviour. What’s up?"

"Oh, I was just going to leave a message. I’m going to have to work back late tonight. I can’t leave things at the Gallery in a mess like this anymore. Sorry."

"Not a problem. What time will you be home?" Buffy flashed the intently listening Faith a big grin.

"Late, I expect. Don’t wait up for me."

"Okay then. See you in the morning, mom."

"Be caref--" The blonde slayer had hung up the phone before her mother could finish her plea for care to be taken. That warning was starting to get seriously old.

"Looks like we have the house to ourselves tonight. Or most of it, anyway." Buffy wandered over from the phone to where the dark-haired slayer was still seated, using her last piece of steak to mop her plate clean.

"Party. So, we go Bronzing, clean up the nest and then head back here for some serious post-slayage action with no one being any the wiser. And you say I never plan!" Faith grinned broadly up at Buffy. The blonde slayer smiled and rested her forearms on the younger girl’s shoulders. With the taller slayer seated their heads were at about the same height, enabling Buffy to look directly into Faith’s deep brown eyes.

"Fun as that sounds, hon, I’m still not sure that we should go charging in there. At least, not until we find out a little more about what’s going on."

"But, B --"

"Faith, I’m serious. You’re going to have to me more careful of yourself now. ‘Cos it’d be a really downer if you went and got yourself killed by some vamp while I was in love with you." The dark-haired slayer didn’t laugh, instead turning slightly and grabbing her fork. She shoved the last portion of her lunch into her mouth, muttering as she did so.

"No fucking vamp is going to kill me. I can kick all their asses one handed. Blindfolded even."

Buffy moved her head back to get a better look at the younger girl. She had a hard time stopping herself from laughing as she looked at Faith’s petulant expression. Instead, the blonde slayer leant forward and kissed the younger girl on the cheek.

"I know, hon, you’re the best. But still, there’s no reason to be impatient about this." Faith turned her face back to Buffy again and the blonde slayer was relieved to see what appeared to be some reluctant acceptance there. Just as she was leaning forward to give the younger girl a grateful kiss the phone rang again. Buffy rested her forehead on Faith’s and groaned. "Argh, I swear I’m gonna pull that thing out of the wall if it rings again." She leant forward and quickly met Faith’s lips with her own before going off to answer the insistantly ringing telephone. This time it was Giles.

"Ah, Buffy. You’re home."

"Uh-huh. That’s the number you dialled and I picked up the phone, so I’m guessing those clues gave it away to you, huh?" Buffy lifted her eyebrow in amusement. The former watcher was flustered. Badly flustered. Xander must have tendered a full report on Faith’s return. This was going to be fun.

"Good, good. I hope that I’m not... uh... interrupting anything." The blonde slayer could almost feel the Englishman’s blush through the handset.

"Just a late lunch. We were feeling a little peckish."

"Oh, umm, I see. Faith is... there with you?" Buffy turned around to face into the kitchen, pulling a bored face at the other slayer as she did so.

"I’m not sure. Let me check... stove, fridge, sink, oh and yup, Faith. All present and accounted for. What do you want Giles?" They were going to be having this conversation all day at the current rate. Buffy wanted to get it over with because she still had a lot she wanted to discuss with Faith.

At the other end of the phone line Giles gave an embarrassed cough. It must have been a particularly loud one because Faith’s look of open hostility turned to one of amused derision.

"I was just, ah, calling about the, ah, meeting. Whether you still want to go ahead. We’ve gathered all our research on the Willow Vampire and the Mayor. You were right, actually. We were missing out on the big picture a little. For example --"

"Tell me about it there, Giles. What time?"

"Oh, umm, well, whenever you’re ready. Everyone but Angel is here now and he’ll come as soon as the sun sets." Buffy felt the bile rise in her throat and was surprised to realise just how much she now loathed her former lover. She hoped that she wouldn’t have to be dealing with him too much, because it could well lead to someone being seriously hurt.

"Okay. I’ll just take a shower and then I’ll be right there." There was a slight pause at the other end of the line and the slayer felt Giles’ blush return with a veangence. She responded with intense irritation.

"That it?"

"Uh, umm, will, ah, Faith be coming along?" Buffy’s voice dropped slightly as she honestly answered the Englishman’s question.

"I don’t know. I’ll see you soon."

As she slowly replaced the phone the blonde slayer internally debated whether she should try and talk Faith into going along or not. There was no doubt that Buffy wanted her to come along. But that was largely driven by her own selfish desire to have the dark-haired slayer’s comforting presence nearby at every single moment. On the other side of the argument were such considerations as the fact that Faith would probably not be all that willing to work with the Scooby Gang. And the fact that she would undoubtedly try to do something about Angel’s continued existence. Buffy decided that she would leave the decision to Faith.

"I’ve got to go get ready. They’re finally going to tell me what’s going on." Faith furrowed her forehead in a look of disbelief.

"You’re not actually going to that pathetic ‘meeting’ are you? I don’t believe it." The taller slayer stood up and looked at Buffy accusingly. "You’re going to work with them, aren’t you? You stood there and watched what they did to me, and you’re still willing to listen to what they say. Even though you know as well as I do that the two of us could clean out the Bronze, get rid of the mayor and still have time to catch a late movie. Or, better still, clean up this hole and then get out of here once and for all. But instead you’re letting them call all the shots, letting them pull you around on a chain like the little pet slayer they always wanted us to be. I can’t believe that they got to you."

"Are you quite finished?" Buffy’s heart ached at what she was seeing and hearing. Faith’s posture had returned to her accustomed defensiveness. The dark-haired slayer was standing on her heels, leaning back slightly, with her arms crossed firmly across her chest. And her voice had that old harshness, which cut away at Buffy’s soul. "If that’s what you think of me, I have no idea why you’re still standing here now. Yes, I am going to work with Giles and the others, but only because I think we need to to do this properly. Not because I agree with what they did to you or believe their bullshit. Just because that’s the only way to get the job done."

Faith didn’t say anything. She just stood looking at Buffy with those incredibly hurt eyes. The blonde slayer shook her head and stepped towards her.

"Faith, I love you. But I can’t risk the lives of everyone in town by doing this the wrong way and having one or both of us get killed." Buffy reached out to touch the dark-haired slayers forearm, brushing her fingers gently over the damaged surface. She desperately hoped that the younger girl would understand. Wouldn’t push her away again. So she was bitterly disappointed when Faith took a step backwards.

"So, my way is, by definition, wrong. I get it. If you think that I’m going to stick around here to warm the bench as the second stringer again you’re whacked." The dark-haired slayer started gathering up their lunch plates somewhat roughly. Buffy cringed.

"Of course not. How can you even think that? You’d be key to any assault on the Bronze. You know that I wouldn’t want to do it without you by my side. But it can’t be a blind assault. It’s just too dangerous. Why don’t you at least come and see what they have to say?"

"Next time I meet any of that pansy group of your so-called friends its going to be in a dark alley. And this time I’ll be the one with a fucking baseball bat." Buffy shook her head in desperation. This was getting them nowhere. Faith was too angry to listen.

"Look, I’ve got to go take a shower. We’ll talk more about this later."

"Fine." The dark-haired slayer started loading the dishwasher. Buffy stormed out of the kitchen and headed upstairs. She hoped that her mom’s kitchenware would survive the experience of being cleaned by a very pissed off slayer.