Chapter 15: A Birthday to Remember
It had been a month and a half since Willow’s spell had gone down, and Faith and Buffy could both attest to their hatred of the rigorous questioning of how they felt every 12 hours by Willow or Andrew. Faith was just glad that Andrew had yet to come into their bedroom at the exact 12 hour mark if they were still asleep- funny, referring to B’s room as ours… oh who am I kidding, I’ve been in there for almost two months- she figured a fear of castration or bodily harm was keeping him away. Willow had been smart in taking the evening questioning, as both Slayers were awake and fully functioning by then. The only hurdle for Willow was being able to ask them before they went out slaying or if they were eating or- an extreme rarity- if they had crashed for some random reason. Faith smiled when she remembered the one time she had taken a nap on the couch in the living room before going out to slay with Buffy and Kennedy, and Willow had woken her up. Willow promised that if she every needed to wake her up ever again, she’d throw something soft at her from a ten foot safety zone.
Faith’s thoughts were shifted suddenly when a hand gripped her arm, bringing her back to the present. Dawn had pulled her to a stop at some obviously expensive clothing store in the mall and was on her way inside.
“Dawn, do you really think B would love you any less if you didn’t buy her something expensive for Christmas?” Faith eyed a price tag of a leather jacket just inside the doors, holy shit, it’s nice but not that nice.
“Aww c’mon Faith, have you ever seen my sister not happy at receiving a leather coat?” Dawn whined, moving into the maze of leather coats.
“I remember being told of a certain birthday present that didn’t go over so well…” Faith mused, smirking slightly.
“Hey! Who told you about that?” Dawn suddenly reappeared in front of Faith, looking slightly upset.
“Xander, but don’t be angry with him, he’d packed away quite a few beers with me by then, so it isn’t totally his fault,” Faith raised her hands in a “cool it” gesture.
Dawn sighed, relaxing, before turning around, “You think you can move on from the past, don’t you? But no, people never forget.” Faith thought back to a time long ago, when Buffy, in one of the few instances where Faith had seen unbridled emotion seething from her, had verbally assaulted her on Angel’s rooftop back in L.A.
“Yeah,” Faith murmured, feeling guilt wash over her. “They never forget Dawnie.”
Dawn poked her head around a corner of tan leather jackets, a look of guilt accenting her features, “I’m sorry Faith, I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t,” Faith swallowed and smiled shakily at the brunette. “I’m five by five here, go on, find something for B.”
Dawn nodded and moved off again. As Faith brushed her hands along the sleeve of a coat, she heard Dawn start off on a rant.
“You know, this is so annoying, buying her a Christmas gift. I mean seriously, her birthday is like half a month away from this, and I have to get her another present.”
“Yeah,” Faith replied absentmindedly. “I know what that’s like. Try having a birthday eleven days before Christmas- that’ll put a cramp in any child’s joy of getting gifts.”
It was a moment before Faith realized what she had just said and stopped fiddling with a clasp button, searching for Dawn. Finding her staring back at her, Faith swallowed and felt a blush start to rise up, but took a deep breath and shook it off, shit.
“Faith, why haven’t you ever told anyone before?” Dawn asked, concern evident in her voice.
Faith snorted, “No one ever asked, no one cared enough to ask; ‘cept for Angel.” Why am I telling her this? Faith found herself unable to stop however, and trudged on, “I just, I didn’t exactly have a stellar childhood, and birthdays and Christmases were better when no one made a big deal about ‘em.”
“Faith-” Dawn started.
“No Dawn, please, don’t go telling everyone. I’m fine, really. I prefer not making a big deal out of my birthday,” Faith sighed. “It’s just not my style, ‘k?”
Dawn nodded before disappearing silently into the sea of leather once again.
The dice shook in her hands and dropped to the table, jumping and rattling until coming to a full stop; their faces a varying array of different amounts of dots. Picking up two dice, Faith shook and dropped them again.
“Four of a kind!” Faith proclaimed, her voiced tinged with success.
“Ahh, bite me,” Kennedy mumbled, picking up the five dice to begin her turn of rolling.
“I’ll talk to Willow about it babe,” Faith winked, causing a stir of laughs to arise from the small group of women.
Faith, along with Kennedy, Dawn and Sandra were playing a game of Yahtzee in the kitchen, ignoring the snow falling outside. The rule had become known to Faith that in this house, whoever called out the snow first was handed the snow shovel. It was an amazing way of getting the younger ones to do dirty work; however, this time, Kennedy had done it without thinking, and challenged the other three women in the room with her to a game of Yahtzee to try to get someone else to do the shoveling job for her. Ticking her gaze over Dawn’s shoulder, Faith looked outside the sliding patio door to the fluffy layer of snow covering the ground. Flicking her eyes back to Dawn’s, she saw a gleam in her eye, oh no, looking so does not count. Clearing her throat, Faith looked down at the large straight that Kennedy had gleaned from the five dice. Damn.
“Ai’ight, I’m done, game, set, match,” Kennedy called out, “Time to count up the points to see if I can get outta shoveling that patio and snow plowing the driveway.”
Faith laughed, “Yeah, ‘cause being a Slayer makes that such a tiring job.”
“Oh shut up,” Kennedy hit Faith in the arm.
“Hey! I’m counting here!” Faith joked, shifting a bit away from Kennedy.
“Hey guys, what are you up to?” Willow asked as she came into the kitchen.
“Betting,” Sandra answered vaguely.
“With Yahtzee?” Willow quirked an eyebrow, “Wow, is there really that little to do around here?”
“Well, I originally had another idea, but you were busy,” Kennedy waggled her eyebrows, a grin on her face.
The group laughed at Willow’s blush before finally laying out scores.
“212,” Faith pushed her scorecard into the middle of the group.
“196,” Kennedy grunted, crumpling her paper up in frustration.
“311,” Sandra proclaimed a Cheshire grin on her face.
“That’s not fair, you got like, three Yahtzee’s,” Dawn whined.
“I didn’t cheat,” Sandra shrugged.
“C’mon Dawn, what’d ya get?” Faith asked.
“182,” Dawn mumbled, resting her chin on her hand.
“Success!” Kennedy clapped her hands, her spirits suddenly higher since revealing her score.
“All right, fine, I’ll shovel,” Dawn grumbled, “But you’re doing the driveway, that only requires time, not labor.”
“Fine by me,” Kennedy shrugged, rising.
As the group began to stand, Faith put the various items into the Yahtzee box and stepped away from the table. A funny feeling overtook her, and she stumbled slightly.
“Whoa, Faith! You okay?” Sandra moved quickly around the table, the four other women suddenly all focusing on the rogue slayer.
“Yeah, I just feel kinda off,” Faith replied, before shaking her head, oh that made things worse, gotta go lie down, taking another step away, Faith suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion overcome her and collapsed to the floor. The last thing she heard was Dawn yelling her name as the sound of the Yahtzee box clattered to the ground.
“Remember to be careful when you go after these demons, Slayer. They don’t play by the fisticuffs rules. They use high powered rifles with potent tranq darts. They’d knock out a rhino, never mind a human,” the graying man told her. “And, don’t forget that they’d rather shoot and leave you to die from an overdose than go outside their precious walls to find out whatever the fuck you wanted.”
“Thanks Jacques, but I can handle myself. I’ll be extra careful if it makes ya happy. Besides I’m not even going in there yet, strictly recon,” Faith replied, sheathing her samurai sword before pulling it’s harness onto her body, securing it around her torso so that the hilt stuck out directly behind her head. Pulling her hair back, Faith put it into a ponytail and winked at her aid in Bangkok. He wasn’t a native, that much was sure, but he’d lived here long enough to be an amazing informant.
“If you’re just doing recon, then what’s with the sword?”
Faith paused a moment, as if she needed to think over her response, “Just in case it doesn’t stay recon.”
With a nod to Jacques, Faith left the safe house and started up her Ducati before weaving through over ten miles of backstreets in the moon-less night. The cloud cover was perfect to stay invisible, but caused her to need to bring along night vision binoculars- an item that, while very useful, was also expensive and heavy.
Killing the engine a block from the courtyard walls of the demon estate, Faith hid her bike behind a dumpster before climbing a nearby fire escape. Running and jumping from building to building, Faith came upon the courtyard wall quickly. Crouching down, Faith pulled the binoculars from a belt pouch. Scanning the walls, Faith saw only three guards within the walls that would be within visibility distance if she went over. Deciding to try to find if there were any blind spots in the courtyard so that she could get in over the wall without bringing any attention to herself the next time she came here, Faith moved parallel to the wall, and continued across the rooftops, stopping at the corner of one to look again. Scanning, Faith saw what appeared to be a blind corner at the opposite end- a group of barrels and other waste formed a barrier in which she could land unnoticed.
“Great, so let’s just hope tomorrow isn’t trash day,” Faith murmured to herself before lifting her binoculars again to do a sweep of the yard.
As she swept her gaze across it, she flashed past a guard and went back, only to finding his rifle trained on her. She had thought that being on a rooftop in this dark weather would be enough cover- apparently not.
“Shit!” Faith turned quickly and started to run back from the edge of the roof before hearing a single gun shot.
It was less than a second before she felt the dart hit her in the shoulder blade. Stumbling a few steps, Faith made it to the other edge of the roof before realizing that she had overstepped the edge. The emptiness of unconsciousness overtook her as she felt her body go into a three story free fall.
Faith’s thoughts were cloudy as she slowly regained consciousness. She knew she wasn’t on the floor still, she was too comfortable- but this is definitely not Buffy’s bed. Allowing her body to slowly reawaken, she began to hear snippets of a conversation as she skimmed the surface of consciousness.
“…upping the ante…”
“…well…now?”
“…Jonesing for a…”
Groaning Faith felt a wave of exhaustion overwhelm her.
“She’s coming to,” Faith could make out the male voice, but couldn’t place an identity to it.
Opening her eyes into little slits, Andrew’s face appeared above her head, oh so not the first thing I want to open my eyes to.
“Hey Faith,” Willow’s voice floated it, soothing her brain slightly, “I’m going to administer a gentle relaxing spell to counteract the whammy you’ve received.”
Faith let out a noise that she hoped sounded positive, and figured that Willow got the message when she felt a pair of warm palms press against either temple.
A few moments later, Faith felt a wave of calm flow through her, and the stirrings of energy buzzed through her veins.
“Will, wha…” Faith murmured.
“Shhh, just rest for now Faith, I’ll come down and check on you, but it’s midnight, so just sleep, and I’ll come back in the morning to see if you’re awake,” Down? Midnight? It was only three last I remember… “You’re in the Trauma Room, so don’t get all worried about where you are.”
Faith nodded slightly, keeping her eyes closed before heeding Willow’s advice and going back to sleep.
Hearing voices around her, Faith opened her eyes, rousing herself from her slumber. Opening her eyes, Faith took in Willow and Sandra talking quietly in the corner of the room.
“Hey, can I get some pillows to sit up?” Faith called out, her voice cracking during the question, “And some water?”
The pair turned quickly and sprang into action. A few minutes later, Faith was sitting up in the bed, sipping water as Willow explained to her what had happened.
“At first we thought you had just blacked out, but then you’re pulse dropped and you began to go into a catatonic state similar to one for people whose systems shut down when they are freezing to death. Then we began the mystic research, and it seems that the Kartuk demons had upped the amount of energy to take from you.”
“Why?” Faith asked, confused.
“Who knows, maybe they were pissed at you and Sandra for killing their pals almost two months ago and finally got around to doing something about it. Maybe they messed up the ingredient amounts that time, we don’t know, but it happened. I’ve put up a protection barrier around you to further protect you and Buffy from large doses of your life force being taken.”
“Do you think it might have been a message? They might not be able to do something of that magnitude for another long span of time, but they did it then to prove that they could?” Faith inquired.
“That is a possibility, I’ll look into it. Right now though, I need to make sure that you’re okay. Everyone has been stampeding in and out of here since you collapsed; I had to limit access because I haven’t been able to keep things quiet long enough to do a magicks scan,” Willow grinned.
“Buffy?” Faith asked softly.
“She’s been in here the most, but right now she’s training with Trey. It’s her way of keeping her mind off of you,” Willow winked before standing.
Faith smiled sheepishly, “What time is it?”
“Around 11:30,” Sandra replied, getting a new cup of water for Faith while Willow assembled various herbs and other assorted ingredients on a plate.
Placing the plate on a trolley, Willow wheeled it over beside Faith. Faith eyed it for a moment before looking up at Willow.
“I’m not eating that.”
Willow laughed, “No one’s…”
As Willow was replying the door burst open, revealing a sweat soaked Buffy and Tracy, the latter with a large welt on her shoulder.
“What the hell…” Sandra proclaimed, taking in the sight.
“We were training with the quarterstaff,” Buffy explained, grabbing an ice pack.
“What, no crossbow?” Willow asked; a smirk on her face.
Buffy paused to think of the reference before grinning, “Ha, well, we’ll get to that. Basics come first though,” Ticking her gaze to Faith, Buffy’s amused facial expression shifted to relief, “Hey, you’re awake! Is she okay?”
“I was just about to determine that when you barreled in,” Willow replied, allowing a teasing glint to remain in her eyes so as to not put off the blonde.
“Ah, gotcha, well lemme know what the sitch is when you’re done,” Buffy nodded at the group before leaving with Tracy.
Faith leaned on the doorframe to Buffy’s bedroom, watching the blonde reading a book on the bed. Today had been her birthday, and while she had always wished it were a quiet one, she had spent more than half of it in the medical room, recovering from a whammy of a spell from the Kartuk demons. Aside from that, however, Faith was glad that Dawn had kept her promise and not told anyone, or made a big deal out of it. Sighing softly, Faith moved further into the room and plopped down onto the bed on her stomach. Buffy looked up from the book she was reading and quirked an eyebrow.
“Someone’s feeling better I take it,” Buffy bookmarked the page she was at and shut the book to focus on Faith.
“Yeah, well, you knew that. Oh, Willow’s doing some second spell to protect us from anything like what happened to me. She told me that if we ever feel a sudden wave of exhaustion, clamminess or dehydration when we shouldn’t, to get in contact with anyone in the house ASAP, as those are the indicators,” Faith informed her.
“Gotcha,” Buffy nodded, before falling silent and playing with the corner of the book. Sighing, she reached over to her night table and pulled open the drawer. Reaching in, she withdrew two envelopes and handed them to Faith.
“What’s this?” Faith asked, but was given no reply.
Opening the first one, she found herself looking at a card with two pictures on a white background. The first was a spring, the second was a chicken. Opening the card, Faith read the words, “You ain’t” and couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on her features. The flowing script of Willow’s handwriting declaring “Happy Birthday, Faith!” explained the reason behind all the different names that were scrawled, printed and signed on it. Damn, that Summers girl is gonna get it. Sighing, Faith looked up at Buffy,
“I didn’t want people to know,” Faith explained, a mixture of anger and thankfulness in her voice.
“Well, at least they didn’t make it into a big deal,” Buffy rationalized, smiling gently.
Faith cocked her head to one side, “Point.”
“Open the other one,” Buffy urged Faith, poking the brunette in the shoulder with her toe.
Faith paused in the act of opening to give Buffy a look saying, “Don’t touch me with those feet,” before opening the card up. The cover was also a simple one, a beautiful picture of a sunset over the mountains was the only thing on it. Opening it, Faith found that the card was an empty one, allowing for the buyer to write whatever they chose. In it, was Buffy’s print and cursive script stating,
“You calm me like this sunset, and yet keep me fired up like the sun itself. Not to wax poetic on you or anything. Happy Birthday, Faith, hope it ended better than it started. Always, Buffy.”
Faith swallowed the lump in her throat. “Always,” now isn’t that an accidental way of yanking in the history with Angel? Looking up at the blonde, Faith smiled,
“Thank you, this is wonderful.”
Buffy smiled back, “Hold on.”
Faith watched the blonde get off the bed and move to the closet. Sliding a door open, Buffy pulled out a plastic bag. Pulling out a rectangular wrapped shape from it, she shoved the bag back into the closet and shut it. Sitting back down on the bed, she handed the gift to Faith.
“B, I…”
“Faith, it’s small and simple, not big or expensively huge. It’s a gift, from everyone, or rather from those that have known you the longest,” Buffy gave her a stern look before relaxing and smiling again, “Now open it.”
Not needing to be told twice, Faith carefully ripped the paper off, revealing the back of a picture frame. Turning it over, Faith felt the lump in her throat return at the image before her. She barely remembered Andrew holding the camera that afternoon, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was what was proven in the picture she held before her- she was finally accepted into a family unit.
The picture itself was one that could’ve been taken on several different occasions over the fall on the patio. Faith was in a lounge chair, a bottle of Corona in her hand, her head thrown back as she laughed at something that Xander had just said. Buffy was leaning over the top of the chair, grinning. The lack of personal space was evident, yet both appeared to be comfortable. Willow was leaning back into Kennedy’s arms on another lounge chair, laughing as well, while Xander sat in a plastic chair, leaning forward, telling a joke, a Sam Adams dangling from one hand. Sandra was standing to his left holding a hand to her mouth as she laughed, a Guinness held lightly in her free hand, while Dawn was sitting on the floor, leaning back, her head angling down slightly as she chuckled, a Diet Pepsi creating a ring of condensation beside her.
Faith blinked, fighting off the wave of emotion before looking up at Buffy, who had a gentle smile on her face.
“Look at the bottom corner of the picture,” Buffy implored.
Faith looked back down at the photo and saw Willow’s neat handwriting titling the picture- “The Scooby Gang Family, Fall ’07”. And again with the barrage of emotion, looking up, Faith murmured,
“Buffy…I don’t know how…thank you.”
Buffy’s face broke out into a huge smile, “You’re very welcome.”
