Title - Faith's Death
Rating - PG13 for now...if it changes i'll let you know
Pairing - Buffy/Faith
Setting - Right after Buffy's death, between seasons 5 and 6
Disclaimer - These character do not belong to me, I am not that clever. All characters belong
to Joss and the really big companies who financed him.
Chapter 1 - Breaking Out
"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it."
-Buffy- The Gift
Faith hadn't wanted to admit, wouldn't let herself admit, that she'd been waiting. Waiting
for them to come for her, not Buffy of course, but someone. But she had never, not in all the
months she'd been waiting expected it to be Wesley. Faith sat down picked up the handset,
"Hey". Faith said
Wesley looked at her steadily and replied in a firm voice,"Hello, Faith."
She tried to return his solid gaze, tried to prove that he didn't make her nervous.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Wesley leaned into his hand set, stared squarely through the pane of glass. Faith took a breath
tried and to avoid his gaze. There was a reason for this visit, one she wasn't sure she wanted to
know.
"Something has gone wrong." Wesley said.
"What does that have to do with me?" Faith was aware that she was being confrontational and
she kicked herself for slipping into old habits.
Wesley sighed a little, took off his glasses and pressed his open palm over his eyes, a deeply
alarming gesture that made Faith wish she did not have to hear his next sentence. Wesley
returned the glasses to their place and looked back at Faith, "Buffy is dead."
There would be time, time after she and Wesley were safely away from the compound, to
wonder if she'd made the right decision. Time in the drive back to Los Angeles while Wesley
was giving her details; Glory, the council, the portal, Dawn. Dawn and Buffy...Buffy
throwing herself off of that tower, closing the portal to hell.
"We are fairly certain that there will be no additional slayers called..." Wesley swallowed and
continued his dialogue "Buffy's first death effectively positioned her outside of the slayer line."
He was being civil, almost kind, keeping a professional manner that spoke of his years of
watcher training.
"The council did consider having you eliminated" he kept his eyes firmly on the road as he said
this "But since their previous missions to apprehend you failed so entirely they determined that
it would be in their best interest to continue your rehabilitation."
He was cutting a lot out, she could sense that. She could hear the things he wasn't saying...
someone had argued for her...Angel probably. Argued to Giles, to the council, maybe even to
Wesley and argued hard, because, and Faith had no illusions about this, she was no ones first
choice. Faith shook off her troubled thoughts and tuned back in to Wesley's dialouge
"...of course we did not expect to retrieve you so quickly..." and here he glanced nervously in
her direction. She smiled a little, he'd been a little stunned when she came crashing through the
partition, lucky for them the guards had been stunned as well.
He continued,"But the basic plan is still in place. You will be placed under Giles supervision
until the council can determine their best course of action."
He turned his head towards the passenger seat giving her as much of his attention as the road
ahead would allow, "I wouldn't trust them. The council was deeply offended by Buffy's
resignation and she did not exactly ease their reinstatement. They will not be quick to forget
that."
Faith was grateful for the care he was taking, both for the warning and for not mentioning the
other reason she should be careful of the council...it would be lot easier to begin with a new
slayer then to invest any time in her, and nobody would blame them if they were still secretly
planning to kill her.
"Thanks," Faith said and Wesley looked back to the road.
Oh yes there would be plenty of time, time to consider whether or not the council was right.