Title: Her First Mistake

Author: Restive Nature (aka Bavite)

Rating: PG13 for violence and swearing

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy The Vampire Slayer characters, nor do I own characters or settings from Dark Angel. They belong respectively to Joss Whedon and Cameron/ Eglee.

Timeline: Post series for Buffy and late season 2 for DA, after the episode "The Berrisford Agenda".

Pairing: Faith/ Alec, though not in the way you'd expect.

Summary: The fury of Faith.

A/N- I was reading over at the TtH forums that Joss Whedon had finally (post series), decided on a surname for Faith. When I read what it was, this fiction popped into my head and wouldn't go away.

Logan Cale cautiously stuck his head in the door. As the mysterious Eyes Only, he had plenty of opportunity to deal with and champion the causes of the underdog. He stood up for the masses of people that couldn't defend themselves. But ever since the transgenic being that he knew as Max had entered his life and begun working with him, he didn't get much chance to be one on one with those teeming masses. And as such, he wasn't quite sure how to deal with this situation.

The thoughts of what had led up to the problem they had encountered certainly weren't the likes of which that Logan was used to dealing with. His life as Eyes Only was more concerned with digging up dirt on scumbags and exposing their operations so that the little people weren't the ones to suffer for it.

And looking in now at the bedroom where Max's pseudo sibling lay, his chest bandaged heavily, while the transgenic male labored for breath, Logan wondered if maybe the transgenic cause he was championing needed more than someone speaking the truth about them. Maybe, just as human beings did, all they needed was someone to just listen.

His musings were cut off when Alec's eyes popped open. Logan hid a smile. Even as damaged as Alec was, his training and instincts were still going as strong as ever. Maybe they were in hyper drive. But another thought popped into his mind. Sometimes a predator was at its most dangerous when it was injured and cornered.

He just hoped that Alec would remember where he was. At Joshua's house, a transhuman male whose DNA had been mixed with canine, Alec should have been safe. And from the slight relaxation of Alec's tense features, Logan knew that the conscious self was slowly letting that information filter in. It was just too bad that his instincts hadn't been fully on that fateful night, just days ago.

"Hey Logan buddy," Alec rasped out. The damage to his lungs had been bad. A normal human probably wouldn't have survived. Especially since Max and Logan hadn't been able to take Alec to an emergency room, for fear of exposure. They'd done the best they could and relied on Logan's surgeon friend, Dr. Sam Carr to do the rest. But as Dr. Carr said, having a lung punctured by a wooden implement wasn't something even a transgenic could get over in a day.

"Hey Alec," Logan returned quietly. The newspaper and file folder that he held in his hand rustled slightly and he glanced down. Logan wondered now if this really was the right time to talk to Alec about this. But as Max had pointed out, Alec had been trying to put this mess behind him. And this information might go a way in helping him do that.

Alec smiled his typical cocky grin. Ii was marred only by the fact that it was immediately followed by a small spate of coughing that left the transgenic male clutching his chest, wincing in extreme pain. Logan hurried forward, as quickly as his mechanically assisted legs would allow him. All three of them, Max, Joshua and himself had quickly learned that Alec needed to sit up during and after an episode like this.

After the moment had passed and Alec was propped up against the mountain of pillows that his concerned host had provided him, he gestured to the papers in Logan's hand. "What's up?" he whispered.

Logan stared down at the pages, wondering how to phrase this in the least exciting way he could think of. It wouldn't do to get the patient worked up. "I came across this article this morning," he started, gesturing with the newspaper. "The name caught my eye, so I did a search."

"And…" Alec said the word slowly. It seemed to Logan that the other man could sense what was coming. Logan handed the file folder over to him, opening it. He ignored the brief flash of annoyance that Alec directed at him. He knew, as well as any other, just how independent transgenics were. But he also knew how difficult a debilitating injury could be. Just look at his own severed spinal cord injury he'd endured over a year prior.

Forgetting his own annoyance, Alec's eyes flicked over the single sheet of paper in the folder. His eyebrow went up at the poor copy of a driver's license. But the picture was enough information. He nodded.

"That was her," he muttered. It was really hard to forget the woman that almost killed you.

"I thought so," Logan agreed mildly, then shrugged. "I wasn't sure, since I only saw her for a second."

"So who is she?" Alec asked, looking thoughtfully at the newspaper.

Logan unfolded the paper. He'd already arranged the newspaper to the section that pertained to their interest. With one last calculating glance at the injured man, Logan gauged that it was time for Alec to lay this whole thing to rest.

There was no outburst as he read the obituary. Logan just didn't know Alec well enough to read the more subtle shifts of his eyes and face when he was taken off guard in this way. The only clue Logan had as to the intensity of the pain this caused the young adult was a softly muttered curse.

"Fuck."