POV Faith

After a few minutes of recuperation time, I helped Angel get Gunn back upstairs in the main lobby; we laid him down on one of the couches to sleep it off. I was about to go and check in with Willow when Giles called me over to the side.

"Uh...Faith, might I have a word?"

I just nod and follow him, hopefully this won't lead to another screaming match cause the last one kinda took it out of me. I don't wanna go off on Giles again, cause it's not really productive and it makes me feel bad. I don't know why, its not really like Giles has done anything for me, although he did tell me I was doing a good job back in Sunnydale. The weird part was I think he actually meant it at the time.

"Uh...I just wanted to...uh...say I'm..."

"Yeah...I know."

"Faith..."

"Look Giles, it's cool, you're worried about Buffy, I get it. So don't worry, no hard feelings...k?"

He looks like he's about to say something else so I just keep talking. People apologizing to me makes me uneasy, so I try to avoid them if possible. And truthfully he didn't really say anything that upset me all that much, although that 'irresponsible' comment he made kinda stung a little bit.

"Look...I didn't mean it, you didn't mean it, let's just chalk it up to the heat of the moment and move on. We'll get this remedy thing together and bring our girl back..."

He gives me a slight smile, and a small nod. "I'll...uh...see if Willow needs any help."

Ok, so here's the deal, Angel and I have the cure; we even have it in a squeezable bottle so as to shoot it right down her throat. Kinda thinking the parasite won't wanna willingly swallow something that's gonna kill it.

The whole situation is kinda bizarre. We need Buffy to be awake for this, but we don't know how long she's gonna stay out this time. Also, we don't want to have to wrestle her when she does wake up, so... I straddle Buffy's waist, making sure to keep her arms firmly at her sides with my legs, and Angel is sitting behind me, right on her legs so she won't be able to move them either, like I said...bizarre. I mean, I know I've wanted to be in this position with Buffy pretty much since the first moment I saw her, but I never imagined it would be with clothes on and with her ex sitting right behind me.

I'm pretty sure it looks at bad as I was thinking cause I heard the gasp from the onlookers as we got into position. Ah...the things you do for love...maybe that's why I haven't done the whole love thing before. Or...at least I don't think I've done it before, I might have... Kinda makes me wonder what my life was like before. Who was I? What was I like? Did I have friends? Did people like me? I guess I could ask my...mom. Ah...who am I kidding? She won't be stupid enough to come back for me again; she's probably halfway back to New York by now. And who would blame her for it?

After a while of waiting for sleeping beauty to wake up, my legs are cramping up, and I'm feeling really restless as my mind continues wandering, thinking about all the bad shit I've been through, the things that were done to me, the things I've done. I'm really starting to feel like shit when I realize what's happening, the parasite is trying to get into my head. It want's me to feel miserable, to feel sorry for myself, it's trying to feed off my emotions, which means she's waking up.

She's still lying there with her eyes closed, playing possum, but she can't keep the smirk off her face. I look down at her until she finally opens her eyes. I move fast, don't want to give her any opportunity to escape, I put my hand over her nose, pinch it shut and just wait cause sooner or later she'll need to breathe, and she'll open her mouth. She's struggling against us big time, I feel like I'm in some sort of crazy rodeo. She's trying to throw us off of her or to at least get my hand off of her nose, but I don't give in, finally she takes a big gasp for air and I squirt all the liquid into her mouth, then quickly cover it over. She continues to struggle, but finally has no choice but to swallow the liquid. She looks at me wide-eyed for a moment, our slayer connection hits me like a sledgehammer, a second later I feel her emotions again, uh-oh...

I quickly jump over her head, turn and lift her up a little, unfortunately for my buddy, he doesn't move as fast as us, he is only just starting to get an idea as to what's about to happen. I'd really like to save him from his fate, but then I'd get it and I don't want that to happen. I don't have much more time to worry about it cause there she blows.

Yep...that's right...she puked all over Angel, and then promptly passed out. I really have to suppress a laugh, cause the look on his face is really fucking funny. I don't think I've ever seen a vampire look quite as disgusted as he looks right now.

I try really hard not to laugh or at least not do it out loud, but I realize he can probably see my shoulders shaking with barely contained laughter. I look up at him, biting my lip so I don't laugh in his face. He glares at me as he gets to his feet, he walks out of the cage and up the stairs and I can hear him muttering, "That's really fucking mature..."

It's not like I did it on purpose, well, not exactly. I can't help it, I start laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes, I know I'm gonna hafta apologize profusely later, but I just can't stop it. It didn't take long after Angel left before the others started laughing as well.

Giles and Xander came down and carried Buffy upstairs and into one of the other rooms; they picked the first door on the right. I told them we shouldn't be using that room, it wasn't right, but they didn't listen to me. Poor Angel came out of the shower in time to see her puke all over his bed and the rug in his room, I haven't really seen Angel really pissed and I know now why everyone was so afraid of him. Damn that's a scary look, although it does kinda lose something when he's standing there in just a towel. I let tweedle dee and tweedle dum remove Buffy quickly and onto yet another room, my room, they better have a bucket close by cause Homey don't play that.

I try to calm him down a little with an offer of help. "I'll help ya clean up. Got any more towels?"

I try to look as helpful as I possibly can, and not laugh at him but it's hard. He lets out an angry sigh, "Yeah...just give me a minute."

He goes back into the bathroom to change, I just look around the room and try not to breathe, hope he doesn't take to long. When he finally comes out he reaches around my shoulder to wipe his wet hand on my cheek as he says, "Ran out of toilet paper..."

Gross! "Ewww....GROSS!..."

Now he's laughing at me, I smile along and nod at the joke, cause that's comedy gold right there. When he's done laughing, I tell him, "Since you're in a better mood, I guess you won't be needing me..."

In a flash I was out of his room and down the hall. Heh! Gotta love this new speed thing. And seriously, it's not like he has to breathe like the rest of us, cleaning it up won't be such a chore to him, like it would be to us.

I come into my room as Willow is asking the group, "Do ya think it worked? M-maybe it's not the best idea to leave her unshackled..."

"It worked, she's back."

They all look at me quizzically wondering how I can be so sure; so I sigh, might as well tell them the rest of it.

"I can feel her..."

They look even more confused and I laugh slightly, "Her emotions...I can feel her emotions, scythe side effect. And also, I can feel our slayer connection. It was gone before, but now its back so..."

Finally they all nod and now it's my turn to ask the questions, "How come she's not awake yet? That a side effect of the magic potion?"

I see the nervous glances back and forth and I'm starting to get a little freaked out, "What?"

Willow starts, "Well...um...yeah...it-it's probably the..."

"Probably!"

Giles jumps in, "There's no need to panic or...or get upset...magic...uh...isn't always exact, and there, uh, is the fact that she's a slayer...and, uh..."

"Oh...so you're saying you just don't know, she could wake up any minute or she could be out of it for a while?"

They all nod nervously, why are they so nervous? Do they think I might go all psycho on them? "Hey guys...what's going on here? What aren't you telling me?"

I look to Giles, but it's Willow who answers me, "We really aren't sure why she's not awake right now. It could just be from everything that happened..."

"Or?"

"Well...finding out about being in Hell might make her not want to wake up. The last time something really traumatic happened she kinda...hid inside her head for a while. I literally had to go in and drag her back out again."

"Oh...well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...I don't think it'll come to that, but it's good to know it can be done."

We all sat around the room and watched Buffy for signs of her waking up, but she wasn't having any of it. Things took a turn for the worse when Anya came back; she gave us all the information we already knew. I was starting to feel bad I had thought she wasn't really helping Buffy until Willow told her we already found the cure. She got all sorts of mad and started yelling at us. Then she grabbed Xander and announced her intentions, poor Xander, I don't think I've ever seen that shade of red on a person before. Dumbass shoulda ran while he had the chance.

Giles and Willow left a few minutes later leaving just the kid and me to keep watch.

We've been sitting here for hours; Dawn has been dozing in and out for most of the night. I knew she wouldn't want to leave so I wrapped a blanket around her and just let her sleep. It was really early the next morning when Buffy finally opened her eyes and looked around.

I could feel how terrified she was, she didn't know where she was, and I'm not quite sure she even knew who she was at that moment. I slowly came over to her and knelt down next to the bed. It took a few attempts before she actually let me touch her arm, a couple of more before she let me stroke her hair gently. All the while I kept trying to re-assure her, let her know she was safe, nothing was going to hurt her.

After a while she had calmed down enough to talk, but only a single word. "Hurts..."

Still speaking softly, "Yeah...it's gonna...for a little while, but it'll get better. I promise."

She nodded slightly, managed a small weak smile. After a few more minutes she asked, "Water?"

I got up and poured some water for her, as she struggled to sit upright, she's kinda weak from all the puking, fighting and remembering. I handed her the water and she started drinking it way too fast, and I do have strict rules about puking in my room.

"Hey slow down on the water, your stomach's kinda..."

She nodded and I went to move away from the bed and she grabbed my arm, she looked completely freaked out, "...d-don't leave me..."

That phrase brings back a flood of memories. I remember how many times she said that to me, how many times she'd beg me not to go, not to leave her. But it wasn't like I had a choice, I was in prison, it wasn't like I could choose to sleep in and stay. I did try to stay with her as long as possible, for months I'd be woken up by either the guards or by the prison doctor, once I even woke up in the hospital, and by the time August was over, I just stopped waking up all together. I stayed with her, I didn't leave her side, which meant we were both stuck in hell until the gang pulled her out and I finally woke up again.

I sat back down on the bed, "I won't leave...I'm right here...Wanna talk about it?"

"No..."

Kinda what I was thinking she'd say. Not that it matters cause I really can't help her with this. There is one person here who can help her, the same person who helped me deal with all that Hell shit. Angel can help her cause he's been there himself, he's the only other person to have been to hell and back...literally.

"Well...you're gonna have to at some point, cause a thing like this...is too big to bury, too big to try and forget, it needs to be dealt with Buffy."

I can see how upset she is at the prospect of dealing with all that shit, I can feel it, I can also feel her trying to distance herself emotionally. I know how dangerous that is, and I wish a thousand times over she didn't ever have to deal with any of this bad stuff, but she does, there just ain't no way around it.

"It's ok baby. I'm not saying you have to do it right this second, or that you should even do it with me, but at some point you'll need to deal, and I'm pretty sure you know who can help you. So when the time comes, let him help you."

She won't look at me; she's looking everywhere else but at me. It's kinda funny how much alike we are, how much we'll both hide from our emotions, from our feelings for as long as possible. It's like pulling off a Band-Aid, you know if you do it quickly it won't hurt as much, but there's just something inside us that makes us wanna drag it out hoping it won't have to hurt at all.

We just try to ignore it, until it eventually goes away. That works for a little bit, but after a while things start piling up, and piling up, until you just can't deal with anything anymore. The good news for us is that we can feel each other's emotions, we can hide it from everyone else, but there is no more hiding from each other.

After a few moments, she reached out slowly and touched my shoulder; her eyes were wet with tears.

"It's fine, it's all healed...good as new. And hey, better me than Angel, right?"

I smiled at her, trying to show her it was ok, we weren't gonna be going 20 rounds over it. But she wasn't looking at me. She slid her hand down my arm and then reached out to touch my stomach. I didn't mean to do it, I really would have liked to play it cool, but I couldn't help it, I flinched when she tried to touch me. It's not like she was going to hurt me, not like she had a knife this time.

She caught the flinch and started to cry, "I'm so sorry..."

"I know baby, I know...but it's ok...I forgive you..."

This moment is way too intense for me; I have to do something to break up the tension. I reach up and wipe her tears away, "Besides, if you start bawling, then I'll start, and I think it would be really bad for our images...us slayers with wicked cool new superpowers can't be sitting around bawling like a coupla crybabies, now can we?"

I'm worried that my attempt at humor wouldn't be appreciated when she laughed slightly, and I really wanted to hear that laugh again, so I continued joking, "Although I have to ask, you do know I'm not really a pincushion right?"

She laughed a little more this time; then shook her head at me, "You're an ass..."

I give her a big smile, "Ya think?"

She smiles back at me and asks, "New superpowers?"

I really can't help being all excited about the prospect of having new powers, which is really the coolest part of this gig. It's like being a superhero without the dorky alter ego thing. "Oh hell yeah...Dude...we're like twice as fast as we used to be..."

"Really?"

Deep down I know Buffy digs that part too, although she might never admit it. But she doesn't really have to anymore; I can feel it, and right now she's curious about these powers, curious and more than a little apprehensive at the same time. "Yep, and I'm guessing we also heal faster than we used to...explains why my shoulder healed in a few hours, also explains why getting run through with a sword didn't stop you from kicking some major ass back in Sunnydale."

Her smile fades a little as she thinks about these new powers and what they mean. They mean she's not as done as she thought she was, that even though there are lots of new slayers, they don't have near the capabilities that we do now. Her and I are still the last defense against all the bad shit, the everyday demons and vamps probably won't be our concern anymore, but those damn apocalypses will still be our problem.

I wonder how she is going to deal with all this, she's never been happy about being a slayer, she's never really accepted it. Don't get me wrong, she did the job, she did it better than any other, but she was never happy about it. Now me on the other hand, was always happy about being a slayer, it could even be said that I was a little too enthusiastic about it. But, in my head, this was always my chance to be something, my chance to not be as useless as everyone in my life told me I was, or more importantly as the Council led me to believe. Of course, I have no idea how I'll react if I ever get my memories back; maybe I'll suddenly hate it, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when and if I get to it.

She looks up at me with that half little smile that I love so much, "I guess the forces of evil better get their asses to Defcon One, cause the Chosen Two are back in business."

Although I know she's not as happy as she's pretending to be right now I just grin back at her. We both know she's lying, but we've got plenty of time to deal with her issues later; right now she just needs a break. I just can't wait to see how mad the newbies will be, I wonder how pissed Kennedy will be when she finds out Buffy and I can still kick her ass, I can't wait to see her face, cause that's gonna be lots of fun. I know she was seriously pissing Buffy off when she kept talking about how she could kick our asses now, how we were going to have to listen to her in the future. That girl has got lots of balls, huh? I kinda like it though, she'll make life really interesting or annoying, depending on which day of the week it is.

I was just about to remind her of the fun we'll have when Kennedy finds out, when she suddenly got up quickly and ran for the bathroom, I think she's puking again, I'm gonna try not to take that personally. A few minutes later I heard the flush, heard her brush her teeth, then turn on the shower; and I realized she didn't have any clean clothes in there. Not to mention the fact that there wasn't any towels in there either, I got up and picked out some stuff for her to wear, I guess I figured out what Lorne did yesterday, cause there are actually clothes for her in my closet. I also grabbed a towel and laid them inside the bathroom on the edge of the sink. I picked up her old clothes and held them at arm's length as I carried them out of the bathroom and dropped them into the garbage. I quickly realized that wouldn't be enough, I tied up the bag and tossed it out the window to the garbage cans below. I took a seat on the bed and waited for her to finish up in the bathroom.

I was just starting to doze when she came out of the bathroom. She looks a thousand times better; I can sense she's feeling a little better as well. Although there is that underlying current of uneasiness running through her, but I'm content to let her pretend for a little while longer. She has been through a lot in a short period of time, I think she deserves some kind of reprieve. She smiles at me, "Thanks for the clothes...and the towel..."

"No problem...I think Lorne and Angel deserve most of the credit though..."

She nods and then smirks at me; "Did ya peek?"

Interesting question isn't it? I don't have the heart to remind her there was no need to peek; I'd already seen the goodies, sorta sampled them as well, although that was a few years ago. And I did have a different perspective at the time. Yeah, it's probably best not to bring that up, nothing good can come from that. "Nope..."

She looks skeptical, so I hold up two fingers; "Scouts honor..."

She laughs, "Um...that's the boy scouts sign, I believe the girl scouts was actually three fingers..."

She holds up three fingers, and I nod, "Oh...I thought that was read between the lines..."

She frowns, looks at her fingers, and realizes what I meant then promptly shakes her head, "You're impossible...and I know you peeked..."

I give her a wink, "Just a little bit, cause you know this being good thing is a work in progress right?"

She smiles, "Uh-huh..." She looks down at Dawn still sleeping peacefully, "I can't believe she hasn't woken up yet, I swear she could sleep through anything..."

She comes closer and sits on the bed, looks a little serious, "I kinda lied..."

"I know."

"You feel it now, don't you?"

"Yeah, it's kinda...freaky. The only other person I've ever felt that connected to..."

"Was me?"

I look away from her; "I had a funny way of showing it didn't I?"

"Stop it, I'm fairly certain we're gonna find out that most of the things you did were a direct result of the Council's interference. They are completely responsible for everything."

"But..."

She puts her finger on my lips to stop me from continuing, "No buts, if they hadn't interfered, if you woulda had your family, you wouldn't have done the things you did."

I want to tell her she's wrong, I'm a fuck up, it's what I do, I really don't see how having a family woulda made a difference. Only woulda been more people for me to hurt is all. But she kept her finger on my lips as she continued, "And...you're looking at everything all wrong. You're failing to see the big picture Faith...."

I just shake my head at her because I've got no clue what she's talking about. I pull her hand away and say, "What big picture? I fucked over the only person I've ever felt close to, the only person I ever had a connection with..." Before I can even process where my mind is going, I ask softly, "How can you forgive me?"

I'm worried I just fucked things up, worried that my questioning her about it will make her question herself. I'm so very scared this will cause her to leave me. But Buffy doesn't even hesitate one second, she immediately says, "I can because you never let me down..."

I just look at her like she's nuts, and add sarcastically, "Did ya hit your fucking head?"

She looks at me slightly annoyed, "No, I didn't hit my head. Except that I actually did hit my head...but that's beside the point. The point is...I forgive you because you never let me down." I was about to seriously deny that, when she put her finger on my lips again as she continued, "...not when it counted. After everything that we did to each other, after I nearly stabbed you to death, you still helped me defeat the Mayor. I get it now, I understand how hard that was for you to do, how hard it was for you to betray the person who cared about you, who believed in you."

I don't want to cry at that; I don't want to cry because I know I did the right thing by betraying him. I did what needed to be done, but it doesn't really make it easier to take. He was nice to me; he genuinely cared about me, in his own weird and crazy way. But none of that changed the facts; he was trying to become a demon, and needed to be put down.

"When I was stuck...where I was stuck...you stayed with me; you risked your life to stay with me. And just a few weeks ago, I needed your help and you came back, you came back...for me, to help me. I'm sure Sunnydale was the last place on earth you wanted to come back to, but you did. And you stayed and showed remarkable restraint by not hitting me back, although I really would have deserved it."

Before I can interrupt, she continues, "And in the Hellmouth, I held the scythe out to you, and you took it, both of us knowing it was the only shot I had to survive that battle. You took it without a moment's hesitation; you understood exactly what I was asking by holding it out to you. And you took it knowing that it might not work, knowing there could be serious consequences afterwards. You saved me yet again Faith..."

I won't look at her cause I still don't think I've done anything to make up for the shit I put her through. Mostly because I didn't do any those things to make it up, I did those things because they were the right things to do. Also, going back to Sunnydale wasn't that big a deal cause I had inside information. Of course to get that information I had to make certain sacrifices, I had to sing, which wasn't nearly as embarrassing for me as it was for Angel cause at least I didn't have to do it in a bar with everyone staring at me.

"And if you need any more convincing that you deserve my forgiveness, just look at Dawn over there, she's someone you helped to create. She's a part of you and a part of me; she's...ours. How could I not forgive you when you're a part of the best gift I've ever received..."

Buffy leaned in and gave me the softest, sweetest kiss anybody has ever given me. She pulled me into a hug and whispered in my ear, "We're a family now...you, me and Dawn..."

I can't believe I'm so fucking pathetic that I'm actually crying. Crying because she wants me to be a part of her life, a part of her and Dawn's life. And just when I thought this moment couldn't get any more intense, she whispers in my ear again, "I love you Faith..."

Ok, so I'm not gonna stop crying for a while now, because she just gave me the one thing I never thought I'd be lucky enough to ever receive...her love. It's kinda frightening that the First was actually right, because I have always wanted her to love me.

I'm not sure when the moment ended and the kissing began, but I'm not complaining, not even complaining that we got interrupted...again.

Dawn called out from the chair, "Buffy?"

She jumped off the chair and launched herself at Buffy and I, giving us both a great big hug, then proceeded to start babbling away at a hundred miles an hour. I'm thinking that must be from Buffy's genes, cause I certainly don't babble.

POV Buffy

As I sat on the bed for awhile talking and joking with Dawn and Faith, I thought about how badly I have treated both Dawn and Faith in the past. Actually, it wasn't just me treating them that way, all of us did, Willow, Xander, and Giles too. I guess the spell the Council put on us to ignore Faith affected Dawn too. Kinda obvious when you consider she is half Faith, and half me. Guess that means we only ignored her half as much.

I'm interrupted from my thoughts by a pillow striking me about the head. I look up to see that Faith is the guilty party here, Dawn and I exchange a knowing look and go about launching a counterattack. It was a lot of fun, until they teamed up against me.

"Hey...no fair...two against one..."

Faith stopped and quirked a eyebrow at me, "I didn't hear you yelling that when it was you two against me, now did I Princess..."

Oh my god, she found a nickname I despise even more than B, I surely didn't think it was possible. I ask sharply, "Princess?"

Faith just smirks and says, "Yep...deal with it..."

Dawn started laughing at me, "Ha! Princess..."

Faith turned to her, "What are you laughing at...Squeaks?"

Dawn's face was a mixture of shock and horror, she squeaked at Faith, "Squeaks?"

I look at Faith still smiling, and rub my ear, "I really think you nailed that one..."

"Thank you..."

"Oh no...you guys are so not gonna call me Squeaks, it's not happening..."

Faith and I moved as a team, she held her down and I tickled her until she finally agreed, "Ok, ok, I'm Squeaks...I'm Squeaks..."

I'm thoroughly enjoying hanging out with Dawn and Faith. Dawn is back to talking a mile a minute, loving having both mine and Faith's full attention. She's talking so fast I had to ask her to repeat what she just said, and of course she just can't help doing the fake sign language thing as she repeats slowly. See? That must be from Faith's genes. "I said...Buffy? Did Faith tell you what she did to Robin?"

I looked over at Faith more than a little shocked, and asked, "You told her?"

Faith looked back at me totally confused as Dawn continued, "She didn't have to tell me anything, I was there, I had a front row seat."

Uh, ok, I'd like to wake up now please...

The look of horror on my face prompts Faith to interject, "Whoa! Hold on...I don't think she's talking about what you think she's talking about. And I seriously can't believe you'd actually think I did that..."

Uh-oh, Faith looks really hurt, way to go Buffy that's the way to fuck everything in a matter of seconds. Of course I don't really think she would have done that.

Dawn interrupts, "Wait, what are you guys talking about?"

Both of us turn to her and say at the same time, "Nothing..."

After our little synchronized parenting, we just looked at each other and laughed slightly, it was kind of funny, it's almost like we're real parents. Finally somebody asks a sensible question, "What are you talking about kiddo?"

Dawn looks curiously at us for a moment then says, "I think I'd rather know what you guys are talking about."

"Dawn..."

She rolls her eyes at me, but she does explain what she was talking about. "I was talking about how Faith defended me to Robin. I cannot tell you guys how glad I am he's not gonna be my principal any more, he was a jerk."

I can see the confusion on Faith's face, she doesn't know what Dawn is talking about and I'm feeling that sinking sensation again. "Dawn...what exactly happened and when did it happen?"

She looks back and forth at both of us for a moment, "It was the night I kicked you out of the house, and have I mentioned how sorry I am for that..."

I just nod cause I know she's sorry, but I also know I needed to not be there. I needed time alone to regroup and get a good night's sleep.

"I was kinda freaking out and everyone was doing their own thing and I needed someone to talk to, and Faith was the only person to ever take me seriously although she doesn't even remember any of that..."

I look over at Faith as that realization hits me, I had just assumed everyone had memories of Dawn. And Faith acted like she knew her when I brought her back to the house; she even referred to Dawn as brat like she used to. It's also weird cause I remember Dawn meeting Faith, I remember being jealous that Dawn liked Faith better than me, how she was completely in awe of Faith. That's just kinda weird.

"Anyway, I went to your room and as I was walking down the hallway I saw Robin close the door, and I was just gonna forget about it but I was really upset. So I knocked anyway cause it was your room, and our house and I needed Faith. He opened the door and he was really mean to me and then Faith opened the door even wider and told him off. Then he left, and Faith hung out with me on the back porch until the sun came up and then I made something to eat and Faith went to take a shower."

I'm still trying to process everything, but apparently Faith has already figured things out. I can feel how upset she is as she asks, "Just the high school principal huh? Who the fuck is he?"

Chapter Fourteen - Sex, Lies and Photographs

POV Buffy

That is indeed the million-dollar question now isn't it? Who the fuck is Robin Wood? In my bid to stay as far away from Faith as possible back in Sunnydale, I had only mentioned he was the new high school principal, I hadn't mentioned his mother the slayer, or him being raised by a Watcher. I hadn't mentioned anything that might have put Faith on alert to Robin nor had anyone else apparently, cause if she knew about him being raised by a Watcher I'm certain she would have avoided being around him.

I turn to Dawn and ask, "Dawn, can you go get Willow and Giles?"

She nodded and left quickly. I turned to Faith wondering what I was going to say to her, I'm sure telling her I'm sorry again isn't going to help, cause after a while it kinda loses its meaning. I told her about Robin and she just sat there taking it all in, not commenting, not criticizing, just listening.

I'm actually rather surprised she's not yelling and screaming at me for not telling her about him. She's much calmer about the whole situation than I would have thought, she asks, "You think Robin or maybe his Mom's Watcher was involved in what the Council did to me?"

I just shrug, "I don't know, but they'd have to be, wouldn't they? It's a little too much of a coincidence for him not to be connected somehow."

"Why though? Why would he do that to me? What could he possibly gain from that?"

It's a good question, a great question actually; it's a question that deserves some serious attention. Unfortunately, it's a question that doesn't have an answer at the moment, "I don't know..."

Her forehead is all scrunched up; I wonder what she's thinking. I don't have to wonder long because she says, "Although I have to admit, I'm kinda glad it didn't happen..."

"Well yeah..." I realize how that might sound to her, it might make her think I was pissed about it, and I wasn't, I'm not, and even if I was it doesn't matter because it didn't happen anyway. "Um...you were saying?"

"I was just saying that I'm glad it didn't happen. You have no idea how pissed I've been at myself for doing that. You know...I've worked so hard these past three years to get better, to get my shit together, and the first minute I'm alone with some guy, I'm just wanting to jump all over him. Kinda pissed me off to think that those three years were wasted, like...I didn't change one fucking bit..."

OK, this is gonna sound weird coming from me, especially since this is exactly opposite of how all these conversations have gone in the past. "It really wasn't that big a deal Faith. As you told me just a few days ago, people have sex its not..."

She interrupts me; "It is a big deal...it's a big deal because I knew..."

Now I'm a little confused, "You knew what?"

"I knew I was going to get a chance with you."

"What do you mean you knew?"

"I mean...Lorne told me some things that were gonna happen, or would happen if I stayed on the 'path', and I didn't necessarily believe him...and it seriously would have been helpful if he coulda told me about this part..."

I'm starting to understand a few things, starting to get that Faith had some help deciding to come back to me. Can I even be upset about that? End result is she came back, we kicked ass, we got together...well almost together. One of these times we're actually going to get to the sex and...OK, I guess I'm not upset about it, still thinking about having sex with her, that's gotta be a good sign, right? I wonder how much Faith knew before coming back? I wonder how much she wanted to kick Lorne's ass when she found out about Spike and me or maybe he told her about that, but then how would he have known?

"Earth to Buffy...want some audience participation or do ya got it all covered?"

I look at Faith thoughtfully for a moment, I'm really curious to know what exactly Lorne told her and how he knew about it because Angel told me the only way Lorne can read people is by hearing them...oh my God...Faith must have sang for him. This I have to know, I can't help grinning at her, "What did you sing?"

She's quite a little embarrassed at the moment and now I know I really need to hear about it. Unfortunately, I don't get the chance to give her the third degree about it now because Dawn has come back with Willow and Giles in tow. But you can bet I'm not going to forget about it, guess it'll just have to wait until later.

Once they were settled and stopped asking me how I was doing, we relayed the information we discovered about Robin and what he did to Faith. Or didn't do, as the case may be. Giles didn't say anything, he was a mixture of embarrassment and thoughtfulness, like he was trying to piece together something while not thinking about the sex stuff. Willow wasn't so quiet though; she had some interesting information to add.

Willow glanced at Faith, who was busy counting carpet fibers I assume, and then she asked me, "Wait a minute...what night was this?"

"It was the night I was...uh...I wasn't there..."

No sense dragging up bad memories right? No need to talk about the night I almost made a gigantic mistake and if it wasn't for the fact that my friends love me enough to stand up to me and tell me 'no'... Yep, don't wanna bring that up.

"The next morning I saw Robin going into Faith's...um...your bedroom as I was going into the bathroom to take a quick shower, when I came out a few minutes later, he was coming out of the room. It was odd because when he saw me, he stopped for a moment and then he starting walking towards me and for a second I was actually kinda...afraid of him..."

Dawn nods her head vigorously and jumps in; "Did it seem like he was going to attack you? Cause I thought he was going to attack after Faith went off on him..."

Willow looks thoughtful for a moment, "Well...he seemed a little...I don't know...strange, but then Kennedy came out of the room and he just turned around and went back downstairs without saying a word."

OK, well, I've heard enough, time to go and talk to the man himself, perhaps give him a sound thrashing for messing with my girl. "Well that settles it, Faith and I will go up and have a chat with him."

"Buffy...I don't think that's really the best idea."

What? Not this again, why is Giles still fighting with me over this stuff? Um, hello, slayer in charge being all...um...chargeful or something. "Look, Giles...we need some answers and he's got them..."

"I wasn't suggesting that we wait, what I was going to suggest was..."

"What? Call Andrew? Let him know we're coming but tell him to keep it a secret? You really think that..."

I'm cut off in mid-rant when Faith taps me on the shoulder, I just look at her, "What?"

"Can you let Giles finish? I'm fairly certain he's on the same page I am..."

Same page she's on? What page is that? Is she referring to the Slayer Handbook again? How come I'm not on that page? Oh wait, I know...because Giles never gave it to me.

"I was merely going to mention, if Robin can perform memory spells he's a bit more than a beginner. Also, if he thought about going to go up against Willow, he'd either have to be remarkably stupid, or he would need to be at least as powerful as she."

Oh...that page...yeah, that makes sense, Willow is pretty dangerous herself. And even though she wasn't actively pursing magic at the time, if she was pushed there is no doubt in my mind she woulda pushed back.

Willow piped up, "And let's not forget we looked up Robin on the net and basically found out nothing..."

Huh? Wait a minute, "You researched him?"

Willow looked down nervously, "Well...um...kinda."

"Why?"

"Um...because you went out with him, and you thought he...um...might have possibly been evil?"

She looked up apologetically, as Faith jumped in, "So...let me get this straight, you thought he might be evil, and you found out nothing about him when you researched him...but you guys let him in on everything anyway?"

Willow wasn't helping me at all by adding, "And he did plot to kill Spike..."

Faith stood there with her arms folded, waiting for an explanation; I blew out the breath I was holding cause this isn't going to be easy to explain. Not to mention that in light of all these facts, Robin should have at least been treated cautiously. Then again, we were in the middle of an apocalypse, what did these people want from me? A guarantee? I'm not perfect. And I don't mean to sound so defensive and angry, but I can't help it. "I fucked up ok? Is that what you want to hear?" I turned away from Faith and looked at the others, "In the middle of an apocalypse I trusted somebody I shouldn't have...I'm sorry I let you all down...I..."

Then Faith did something I totally didn't expect; she came up behind me, and put her arms around me, which effectively stopped me in mid-rant. It also stopped the tears from coming; which is good because I hate crying in front of other people even if they are my friends. "You didn't let anyone down, I wasn't blaming you, I was just...um...clarifying. But I was out of line...you're right, it was an apocalypse and he did appear to be helping. And it's obvious you didn't know about the research...and his mother was a slayer, which I would assume is correct?"

She looked toward Giles, "Um...well...yes...Nikki Wood was a slayer who had a son named Robin and he was raised by her Watcher, Bernard Crowley after she died. Unfortunately, by the time Robin introduced himself, the Council had already been blown up, so there was no way to verify that Robin was indeed who he said he was. Nor was there any other way to find out about him, but there were other priorities at the time. However since we have the time now, I'll see if Wesley can find out any information about Robin from the Council's backup files."

Faith gave me a final little squeeze before letting me go, and I swear I don't know how I ever lived without her, I just know I don't wanna ever do it again. Who else would have known that was just the right amount of comforting for me? It was the perfect gesture at the perfect time, no other person I dated would have been able to pull that off without making me cringe inside.

I suppose now is probably a good time to try to get myself back in good with Giles, I smile at him hopefully. "Ah...ok, so, Giles...what do you suggest we do about Robin?"

He doesn't acknowledge my hopeful look, and I'm about to find out why. "I would suggest Willow should probably go with you, she could at least bind him from doing magic, and that along with your new powers, which we will be discussing at some point in the very near future, should be enough to gain some information."

Oh damn, he's mad at me. I hate when Giles is mad at me; and he has every right to be, I shoulda told him about Faith and I and holding the scythe. I don't do guilt all that well. And being a slayer, I should probably be embarrassed that I'm afraid to face an angry Giles alone, not to mention it is kinda throwing my girlfriend under the bus, but...

"You, Faith and I?"

"Yes Buffy, the three of us need to discuss these new powers and what it might mean."

I'm guessing that means its going to be a long guilt-racked speech about my scared duty...opps...our sacred duty. Gotta remember I'm not the only chosen one, I'm half of the chosen two. I glanced over to see if I managed to piss Faith off when I shamelessly got her involved in that future conversation, but she's clearly not paying any attention to me or Giles. She's busy slipping weapons into every available pocket in her jacket, making sure she's ready to go. As I watched her hide those various weapons, I wondered when Faith ever went anywhere prepared. Cause she always borrowed mine, even in the cemetery with Spike... Hey....I bet she didn't really need my stake at all, she just used that opportunity to cop a feel of my thigh. Well, this is Faith I'm talking about, so I guess anything is possible, and I shouldn't forget the fact that I actually enjoyed it.

Willow seemed to be willing to participate, "All right, I guess I'm in. Give me 15 minutes to shower and change and I'll be ready to go."

Faith and I are waiting outside in the car, as Willow's fifteen minutes are slowly but surely turning into twenty minutes and counting. Giles is probably making sure she knows whatever spells might be helpful in dealing with Robin. But that does leave Faith and I sitting out here with nothing to do. Hmmm...what to do while we wait? Oh yeah, gorgeous slayer sitting next to me, I look over at her and after a few seconds she looks at me, "What?"

"Nothing...it's just that you got this..."

I motion her closer, that's right Faithie...come closer, a little more, ok, right...there. Mmmm...I love kissing this girl. She laughs into the kiss cause she knows I maneuvered her to be right where I wanted her. It doesn't take long before this little make out session needs to be kicked up a notch. I gently slide my hand inside her jacket, running my hand along her side, I feel her tremble slightly as I touch her. Oh yeah, she wants this just as much as I do, so I continue to move slowly, teasing her a bit. I'm moving my hand ever so slowly up her side, running it up and over...running my fingertips across her breast, she moans softly as I add more pressure, she's so freaking sexy right now...

KNOCK, KNOCK!!!!

Damn it... I turn to look out the window and Willow is standing outside the car with a big grin on her face, dang witch has really rotten timing. I open the door to let her inside and she says, "Oh, don't let me interrupt...that was kinda hot..."

OK, now she's done it, I'm blushing furiously as Faith laughs and grins at Willow. Oh no, these two ganging up on me is not gonna be fun, wait a sec, since when do Willow and Faith do anything together?

"All right, let's go...fasten your seatbelts ladies..."

I had thought Faith was just joking, but seatbelts seem like a really good idea while we are going mock 10 toward the 101 North. I don't know where Faith the safe driver is at the moment; hopefully she'll be back soon. Jeez, at this rate we'll probably arrive at the hospital before we left the hotel. When we got to the 101 North we saw all the traffic snarled on the highway, you know California really sucks sometimes. We look at all the food places we are about to leave behind and everybody's stomach is growling for some food, so we decide to stop.

Faith is halfway to the door of the restaurant before she realizes we aren't with her, she comes trudging back and gives me an expectant look. I can't believe how much her and Dawn's mannerisms are the same, I never noticed that before, that's really funny. We slowly get out of the car and I tell her the problem, "Um...I don't know about you, but Will and I are kinda...broke..."

Faith grins at us, "Broke ass bitches..."

"Come on, seriously, what are we gonna do?"

Faith pulls out a wad of cash and says, "I suppose...I could treat..."

Some nuns come out of the restaurant and walk by us, they stare at the wad of cash, then us, then the cash again, I guess they suspect we got this money illegally or something. I just know this isn't going to be good as one of them is about to say something to us, probably about following Jesus or we need to change our wicked ways. Faith just turns to them, gives them a wink, and a cheeky grin, "Saw my pimp today...and hey if any of you girls are interested, I'm sure he could find a spot for ya..."

They gasped at Faith and decided our souls aren't worth it and quickly got into their station wagon, and drove away. I frowned at Faith and I was about to give her a hard time about harassing innocent nuns, when Willow interrupted me, "You really DO need to find the fun, B..."

They both started laughing slightly like little kids who know they shouldn't be laughing but just can't help it. I gave them each an exasperated look, shake my head again and I walked toward the door. That's when they really started laughing, and here I thought that those two not getting along was going to be a problem. I'm not really all that upset, it was kinda funny and I'm happy Faith and Willow are bonding. Although I seriously wish they weren't bonding by making fun of me, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made.

We got our food without further incident, and got back into the car to continue our journey northward. We had a lot of laughs on the drive; Faith was regaling us with tales from prison. As usual with Faith you don't know whether she's making them up as she goes along or if those things actually happened. I don't know how she managed to make prison sound like nothing more than summer camp, but she did, and I don't know how she got me wishing I had been there with her, although, prison had to be a lot more fun than my life these past three years.

Two hours later, we arrived at the Pismo Beach hospital. As we were about to go inside Faith stopped us and said, "Look, whatever happens in there, just follow my lead, ok?"

I was a little apprehensive about Faith taking the lead here, usually whenever we went on slayer missions; I was the one in charge. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't trust her, or don't think she can do it, I just don't have a lot of experience in following. It's one thing to let her be in charge when I'm not around, but when I gotta follow orders it becomes something else entirely. You know, this just might be the hardest part about being with Faith, learning how to take a lesser role and not be bitter about it or second-guess her all the time.

Willow and I nod our consent, and follow her inside. I sure hope she's better at undercover work than I am, otherwise we could be in a bit of trouble. We had decided that sneaking inside was our best option, we didn't wanna alert Robin we were there, or get turned away. If it was up to me I would have opted for sneaking in through the back, by the kitchen or basement. I'm wondering why we are going in the main entrance, cause usually front entrances don't lend themselves to sneaking. If we get turned away it's only gonna make sneaking in that much harder, maybe I should...OK, I need to relax, I need to sit back and see what she's gonna do, I at least need to give her a chance.

Faith walked up to the reception desk with purpose and looked at the two old women sitting at the front desk. She smiled a little uncertainly at them and said, "I've got an appointment in Radiology...the first of many..." Faith's smile grew a little more uncertain and the women looked at Willow and I and Faith added, "They're with me...moral support..."

One of the women looked up at Faith and patted her hand in sympathy, calling her 'dear' when she asked Faith to sign in, which Faith did without question or hesitation. I cannot believe these old ladies are actually buying this shit, especially when I see the name she used to sign in, 'Jen Lindley'. I almost started laughing but then remembered I'm supposed to be 'moral support girl', but I couldn't help but go along with the joke as I signed 'Joey Potter'. Willow rolled her eyes at us, but played along too by signing in as 'Dana Scully', Faith raised an eyebrow and Willow just pointed to her red hair. The women told us to just follow the green dots, and wished Faith well, to which she thanked them with a small, sad smile.

We walked away solemnly following the green dots, after we got out of their eyesight we quickly ducked into the stairwell.

I just look at Faith, and I have to say I'm a little impressed. Not to mention rather thrilled that sneaking didn't mean cutting through the kitchen or the dirty boiler room. "I can't believe those women actually bought that. How'd you know that would work? What if they had asked for ID or something?

She waved me off. "Ah...those women are just there to hand out the patient visiting passes they really don't care about anything else. Basically the just wanna get out of the house and find out what their neighbors are doing. Also Radiology is pretty much always a separate department, they make their own appointments..."

"How do you know all this stuff?"

Faith just shrugged, "Um...I watch ER?"

I seriously don't buy that's the reason she knows this stuff and I look to Willow to see if she was buying into this, when she said, "Ohhh, did you see the episode where Dr. Romano got too close to the helicopter?"

Faith nodded along smiling, "Yeah, that was crazy. One minutes he's just..."

I clear my throat to get their attention, "Um...can you guys come back to reality, this is real life, not some stupid TV show."

They both gave me an apologetic look, and Faith re-focused, "Um...right...ok, all we need to do is locate Room 212...Now remember you guys, act like you belong. Nobody ever thinks to question people who look like they belong."

She started up the stairs and Willow and I quickly followed. We found Room 212 with relative ease, unfortunately the room was completely unoccupied. A check of the surrounding rooms found some patients but no Robin, and there was no Andrew around either which had us feeling a little apprehensive. Andrew had volunteered to stay at the hospital with Robin, making sure to keep us updated on Robin's status. He had mumbled something about trying to do something useful with his life, I tried to tell him he didn't have to stay, he was more than welcome to join us at Angel's, but he seemed like he really wanted to stay. I didn't really think much about it at the time, somebody needed to stay and he volunteered so we left him here. I'm seriously hoping that there is some reasonable explanation for all this, that there is a perfectly good reason why both Robin and Andrew seem to be missing from this hospital.

Faith, Willow and I re-convened in the stairwell to plot our next move.

Willow volunteered to help, "I can use the old Jedi mind trick again, get the nurse to just give us the information we want, like I did with the Sunnydale police."

Faith asked, "A thing like that takes a lot of energy from you though, doesn't it?"

Willow nodded although she looked a little confused so I explained, "We'd prefer to keep our Willow weapon fully charged."

She smiled and nodded her understanding, I turned to ask Faith what we should do but she was already halfway down the hallway and to the nurse's station. I couldn't really make out exactly what she was saying, I caught enough to figure out Faith was making up some story to get the information we needed. In less than fifteen minutes, she was back with all the information the hospital had on Robin. I'm seriously floored at the relative ease Faith has with getting people to buy into whatever she's told them.

As Faith relayed the information, the mystery of Robin deepened. It turns out there is a record of Robin being in this hospital, but not in the emergency room on the day we dropped him off. He was here yesterday, apparently he didn't have surgery to repair the damage he sustained in the battle with the First, his records show he was admitted to ambulatory surgery to remove some pre-cancerous moles from his back. Willow and I both cried, "Ewww..." when she told us how many moles were supposed to be removed. I bet Faith is even happier she didn't really sleep with Moleboy now. Seriously, his whole back must have been covered with them, oh God that is totally gross. I mean one or two is fine, but whole clusters? I can't believe I actually went out on a date with him, I can't believe I was actually that close to all those moles. Ugh, I feel so skeevy right now. Ok, really need to focus on something other than Moleboy.

We managed to catch a break, the nurse was sympathetic to Faith's cause, whatever that may have been, because she gave us the name of the pharmacy where they called in Robin's pain medication prescription. Hopefully the pharmacy has another address for Robin because the hospital listed him as living in Sunnydale and covered under the high school's insurance plan. Something was seriously not right here; who the hell takes time to make an appointment to remove moles when there is an apocalypse going on. Did he just have a lot of confidence in me or did he have some kind of inside information or was he just plain crazy?

A half-hour later, we were casing the pharmacy, the pharmacist on duty was a young guy, in his middle twenties, early thirties maybe. While we watched him he was giving an old lady a hard time about picking up her prescription without proper identification. He flat out refused to hand over her pills because and I quote, "It's against our company policy." That guy really needs to lighten up, she's a cute little old lady for chrissakes. It's not like she's Pablo Escobar trying to start up her own drug syndicate, I mean really. This positively sucks cause I'm thinking getting any kind of personal information about Robin from this guy is going to be impossible.

I asked Faith, "What are you gonna do? I don't think this guy is gonna wanna willingly give up any information."

"Ah...don't worry, this guy's gonna be easy...all I have to do is ask him."

I looked at her skeptically and I couldn't help but ask, "What makes you think you can just walk up there and get him to look up personal information and give just it to you?"

She looked back at me with a smirk; "They're called boobs, Buffy."

With that she handed me her jacket, pulled down the front of her shirt, pushed up said boobs and sauntered over to the pharmacist. Meanwhile, as Willow and I stood there and watched I was the picture of calm even though the guy kept his focus on Faith's breasts and didn't look up from there once. OK, that's a lie, Willow had to threatened to use magic on me to stop me from pouncing on the guy. Apparently I have some jealousy issues I have to work through.

Ten minutes later we were walking out with an address for Robin, which was located right here in beautiful downtown Pismo Beach. It seems Mr. Stick-in-the-Ass Pharmacist made Robin give him an address that wasn't at the bottom of the pit that used to be Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Faith walked out of there with Todd's phone number, do you believe that's actually his name? I seriously didn't think it was funny when she put the number in her pants pocket. Although, Faith seemed to be enjoying herself when I pushed her up against the car and retrieved the number from her pocket, and ok, I might have lingered there for a moment, all right, a long moment, at least until Willow told us to get a room.

We got back into the car and found the address easily enough; the house was larger and much nicer than we thought it should be, much nicer than a high school principal could afford. Especially when you consider he had an apartment in Sunnydale too. We got out of the car and walked 'like we belonged' up to the front door, a ring of the doorbell produced no results, nor did a check of the mailbox.

Faith tried the doorknob and found it to be unlocked, which made us a little nervous, but we continued on inside the house anyway. The house was sparsely furnished in the living room, the kitchen had some dishes in the drain board, and the refrigerator had some beer, a half-finished gallon of milk, and a wilted piece of lettuce. The rest of the downstairs area had nothing else of interest; neither did the first bedroom we checked nor the bathroom. It wasn't until we hit the master bedroom that we discovered this had indeed been Robin's house.

Willow and I followed Faith inside the master bedroom, the bed was made, there weren't any clothes on the floor, we hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary then we heard Faith mutter the word, "Fucker..."

Willow and I looked up and noticed the closet door was actually one of those mirror doors, designed to make the room look bigger than it was, the part that pissed off Faith was that Robin had spray painted one single solitary word across it.

SURPRISE

I don't know why that word upset Faith so much, but one second we're looking at the door and the next we are watching as the shards of the mirror rained down onto the carpet. Yep, Faith punched the doors.

I frowned at her and added sarcastically, "That's talented..."

Although it wasn't so much sarcastic as true, because I looked back at the closet and I realized it wasn't a closet after all, but another room all together. Faith was the first to walk inside, with me following closely behind her. There was a string hanging from a light fixture attached to the ceiling. Faith was about to pull the string and asked me, "Did you ever see the movie The Longest Yard?"

"Um...no...why?"

"Oh, well then you won't find this amusing...nevermind..."

I heard her mumble, 'where's Xander when I need him', she hesitated a moment before she reached out and pulled it, illuminating the small room.

What we saw made us both gasp...The entire room was covered in pictures of Faith and I, sometimes we were together in the pictures, but mostly the were pictures of us separately. I saw pictures of me with my mom outside our house, at the mall, at the gallery, in front of the Expresso Pump, there were also pictures of me with Willow and Xander, there were even pictures of me with Tara and Willow. It would seem that Robin has been following us both around for a long while.

I turned to see how Faith was reacting to all this, she was over in the corner staring at photos of her with her family. I guess it's one thing to be told you have a family, but it's another when there are pictures proving it to be true. I went over to her and stood next to her and looked at the pictures. Some were of her and her brothers, some with her and her mom and dad, there was even one where Faith had her arms wrapped around some hot girl who looked an awful lot like Jennifer Anniston. They were both smiling big stupid cheesy grins for the camera, the thing that stood out about the picture to me was that they were both sporting identical tattoos, Faith's tattoo was on her right arm, and this girl's tat was on the left. How fucking cute is that? I panicked slightly, wondering if tattoo girl was Faith's girlfriend back in Boston. I wondered if that girl had moved on with her life, wondered if Faith would wanna go back to her, would that girl take her back? What would happen to me if they did wanna get back together?

Willow walked in and said, "What the f...?

For Willow, that's as close as you got to hearing her curse. I'm guessing she was more than a little freaked out at seeing all these pictures of Faith and I. I pointed over at the wall and Willow walked over and saw pictures of her, Tara and I. She stood there not moving for a moment, then she starting pulling out the pushpins. I thought it was odd until I remembered all the pictures she had of her and Tara were destroyed when the Hellmouth imploded. It also occurred to me that all the pictures I had of my mom were long gone too, it didn't take long before Willow and I were going nuts collecting the pictures. After a few minutes, I spared a glance over to where Faith had been standing, I noticed she was no longer there, and neither were the pictures of her family. She hadn't taken any other photos but those. I started to worry about her when I saw her sitting on the edge of the bed looking at her pictures. She looked so sad and lost; I just didn't know what to do. Willow turned and watched my gaze, "Go on Buffy, go to her, I'll get the rest of the pictures."

I just nodded and walked over to her, and sat down on the bed next to her. She spoke so softly I almost didn't hear her. "I was happy..."

She flipped through the pictures showing me her smiling face in every single one of the photos she had taken from inside the room. She looked so happy, so innocent, so completely opposite of the girl who first showed up in Sunnydale. She just looked like a regular teenager who hadn't a clue of how fucked up life could be, which just completely emphasizes how much the Council took away from her. I didn't know what to do for her; all I wanted to do was to take the pain away. It was breaking my heart to see her so sad, to feel how much pain seeing these pictures brought her.

I wanted to make her feel better, so I handed her the one picture I still had in my hand. It was one she hadn't noticed because it was on the opposite side of the room. It's a picture of her and I with our arms around Dawn in front of the Christmas tree. Robin must have stolen that picture from my room cause the last time I saw that picture it had been in a frame in my top dresser drawer. I'd be really pissed about that but if he hadn't taken it, it would be amongst the rubble of Sunnydale.

The picture hadn't originally included Dawn because she wasn't really there then; it had just been of the two of us. Faith had just arrived at the house and before we could do anything; my mom made us take that picture in front of the tree. I remember thinking that Faith would never go for the corny, in front of the tree picture, but she just smiled and happily complied. I was completely flustered afterward, being all hugged up next to Faith had me thinking all sorts of things, which is when I went up to my room and found Angel there and that was the end of that. By the time I came home the next afternoon, Faith had already left, my mom was seriously pissed at me and I was well on my way to breaking my promise to tell Faith everything. Faith took the picture from me and looked at it, she smiled slightly, and since I knew Faith didn't have any memories of that Christmas with Dawn being there, I proceeded to tell her what I remember and what Dawn had told me.

"You had said you weren't coming and Dawn was so mad at me, she told me the reason you said no was because I must not have sounded sincere when I invited you over. Which was pretty accurate, wasn't it?"

I coughed slightly, then continued, "Um...She wouldn't talk to me the entire time we set up the Christmas tree, and then you showed up. You really saved my ass there too, because let me just say that Dawn not talking to you is way worse than Dawn non-stop talking to you. She was so thrilled that you showed up, she was jumping up and down, demanding that we take a picture with her in front of the tree. And then I went to help Angel, and you stayed there, hung out with her, you watched TV with her, and played monopoly all night, and then it snowed and you showed her how to make a proper snowball, and a mini snow man. I'm not quite sure why it had to be a mini snow man, there was enough snow to make a big snow man."

Faith shrugged, "No gloves, no winter coat, I suppose."

"Yeah well who would have expected snow in Sunnydale..."

She stared at the picture for a few more minutes, then asked, "Can I keep this?"

I nodded, "Sure..."

She put that picture along with another one in her jacket pocket, there was no need to ask, I already had a feeling what other picture made it into her pocket. I didn't say anything about the other picture, what would be the point, right? She doesn't remember who that girl is or why she was important to her, of course the identical tattoos say they were at the very least friends, I'm seriously hoping that's all they were to each other. Although permanent ink would suggest they were more than friends, right? But Faith and I are soul mates that has to count for something right? She wouldn't just choose some bimbo from five years ago over me, would she?

Faith interrupted my dark thoughts, with a quick kiss; "She'll never be able to replace you, so it doesn't really matter who or what she was to me."

Said the girl who couldn't remember. I just nodded and tried not to think about it. She gave me a more serious kiss, and said, "We should probably help Willow take down the rest of the pictures, see if there's anything else of interest in there."

With the three of us working together, we quickly took down the rest of the pictures, went through the desk and filing cabinet. We found more photos, some spell books with lots of information about memory spells, several notebooks detailing the memories Faith was given, and a laptop which Willow will go through. The only thing we didn't find was a note telling us everything we needed to know, but I guess that would have been too easy now wouldn't it.

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