Double Act
"Buffy's dead, Faith"
Angel watched as the brunette slayer reeled back in horror and dropped the phone. He could see tears well up in her eyes through the glass and he felt bad that the glass prevented him comforting her 'cos despite the fact that he loved Buffy he had feelings for the rogue slayer. As he was thinking this, Faith had recovered and with a determined look on her tear stained face, she picked up the phone'
"Move"
Without hesitation Angel moved to the side and Faith launched herself through the glass, as she stood up she grabbed Angel and dragged them both out of the window landing them on a car four floors below.
"You okay?"
"yeah except for the crippling bruises that'll appear tomorrow, good thing I'm a vampire but personally I prefer the stairs, what are you doing?!??!"
"jail break big guy, I'm going to Sunnydale"
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Faith got off the bus and looked around,
"aauhh, Sunnydale……and Willow and Xander and Giles and Dawn and ohhhh god …Joyce, I-am-an-idiot. Jail was sooo a better option"
She lumped the bag with her few belongings in over her shoulder and started to walk towards Buffy's house,
"here we go"
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Dawn, Xander, Willow, Tara, Anya, Giles and Spike were sitting in the Summers front room
"anybody wanna play poker!"
Dawns forced chirpy voice broke the silence that had settled over the group since they got together.
"not really Dawnie"
"doesn't -doesn't anyone think we should, you know try and find Riley to tell him Buffy's - Buffy's….Dead?"
Tara's suggestion brought a mixed response;
"BOLLOCKS commando guy just took of, you think he care's!!?!!???"
"well he might want to see the body"
"Anya!"
"he loved Buffy, he did!"
"oh yeah!" Spike scoffed
"that's enough! Riley is on a secret mission we wouldn't be able to find him if he doesn't want to be found, but we have other problems to sort out Buffy is gone, as much as we hate it and wish it were different but the slayer line doesn't run through Buffy, in other words another slayer wasn't called when she died"
"oh, that means the slayer line runs through-"
"Me"
Everybody jumped and spun round to face the door where the 19 year old slayer stood with her bag on her back
"sorry, door was open"
Giles took off his glasses and started cleaning them
"Faith" he said quietly
"look before everybody rushes to gut me, I'm sorry about B, Angel gave me the 411, we may not have got on well, but she was the closest thing to a friend and sister I ever got and I've changed, prison and Angel's visits have helped me, so I came here to see if I could help out on the slayer front since- well I'm the one and only chosen one again"
"Angel visits you!?"
"GET OUT!!!!!"
"Faith, um I don't believe you've met Dawnie, she's Buffy's -"
"little sister yeah uh, I know? I am the one who still has bruises from B for teaching her to steal, have you had a mind wipe or something?"
"oh yeah, those monks did it good and proper didn't they!"
"Okay, not getting the deal here, monks? Thinking I don't know Dawn!"
Everybody's face had a different expression, Giles looked bemused, Willow still sulky 'cos Angel visited Faith, Xander looked shifty, Dawn looked pissed off , Tara and Anya just looked curious and slightly miffed, they had both born the brunt of Faith's sharp tongue before now and…
"have we met?"
"Spike, right?" she grinned "our paths might have crossed"
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"so hey, can I come out patrolling with you Faith, please?"
"way yeah, if I remember right, you're wicked with a stake"
Dawn and Faith were sitting in the kitchen, Dawn was meant to be doing her homework and Faith was just lounging 'round eating her chips and remembering Buffy and the good old day's; the day Wes had arrived and Buffy told her she didn't like the 'grunting' ,taking the then 12 year old Dawn out and teaching her the best ways of getting out of a shop, with the goods they hadn't paid for, she'd had to sweet talk a guard who caught them and put up with Buffy trying to smash a chair over her head for taking Dawn that day, Geez!!! Snapped out off her thoughts by Dawn she was happy to let her come.
"I don't think that's advisable, Buffy assumed, rightly too, that patrolling was too dangerous for Dawn"
Giles had entered the room with a book under his arm.
"awwwwww, Faith said yes"
"and I'm saying no, Faith has enough to deal with out patrolling without looking out for you"
"its no problem really, its cool"
"no!"
"hhhh, sorry Dawny Brit Boy says no and if Buffy didn't let you I cant go against her"
"FINE!!"
And Dawn stormed out of the room shooting Giles evil looks, Faith shrugged, dumped the empty chip packet in the trash and walked out the door to go patrolling and Giles sighed, shook his head and walked out the same way Dawn had gone.
"for gods bloody sake, teenagers!!!"
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Faith was walking down the street watching for vamps but also lost in thought, it had been two weeks since she had arrived back in Sunnydale she was staying at the Summers residence, she slept on the floor it was only until she found a job and different place to stay. Dawn seemed happy she was staying with them everybody else was just annoyed, Giles was still extra irritable around her, Willow stayed as far away as possible, Tara followed, Xander was jumpy and twitchy around her and tried to keep Anya away probably afraid Faith was going to say something, she had been genuinely upset to learn Joyce was dead, the last time she'd seen her she'd been holding her hostage and was about to kill her now she could never say sorry and Spike …well she hadn't seen the bleach blond vampire since the night she arrived back was kind of glad of it too she didn't know what he knew about the body swap and ..what she'd said in B's body was pretty dramatic but hell the look on his face was worth it.
She was so lost in thought by now she didn't notice the guy in black sneaking up on her, he grabbed her shoulder, she jumped,
"so our paths have crossed have they? And when would that be?"
"Spike! ha, yeah that's a long story"
"me, I got forever, try me"
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The Scooby gang plus Spike and Faith and Minus Giles were in Buffy's room,
"so its tonight? Red, you work your mojo and B gets a wake up call?"
"everything's ready, so yeah tonight, we have to form a circle of friend's Faith um-I don't think you should um-be in the circle you and Buffy weren't exactly Best Buds when she threw herself off of a big tower so.."
"nah, Red don't worry it, I'm ok, I'm Five-by-Five, right?"
"O.K! everybody's fine we're great but what about Giles?, we invite him over, he walk's through the door we go 'surprise, look Buffy's been raised from the dead it was nothing to do with us we're as surprised as you are now we're going to run away before you hit us over the head with one of the big books you carry around with you because we dabbled with naughty bad advanced magic bye-bye now' yeah that'll work, note the heavy sarcasm!!"
"you haven't changed one bit have you Xand?"
"my point being he's going to turn us into frogs!"
"oh god no! I don't want to be a frog!"
"Xander's kidding Anya, Giles wont turn us into frogs he can't anyway it's magically impossible, well to him anyway"
"Xander! you made me worry!"
Everybody laughed at Anya's overreaction
"sooo…tonight?"
the laughter stopped
"tonight"