Author's Notes: Before you read this, you should probably read my other fic, Deciding Too Late. I guess you could read this one without it, but it's nice to know what actually happened. So, this is gonna be kinda confusing, but it's pretty much an over-view of the Buffy-Faith relationship through out season 3 using the season 4 episodes of This Year's Girl and Who Are You. So tags, to that, but it goes off in a completely different direction. Well, I'm gonna shut up now and let you read.

XOXOXOXOX

Faith stood at the window, watching in on that blonde girl. Her memories were confusing, and they often lied to her, so she was unsure of what happened to her. All she remembers is overwhelming anger and Buffy, then other feelings for the woman that she didn't want to mess with. The sensation of feelings, thoughts, and awareness was something she hadn't felt for 8 months, and everything was amplified. She had just escaped from the hospital after waking up from a Buffy-induced coma, and now was spying on a meeting of the Scoobies.

A boy in the corner was the only one Faith didn't know.

"He's probably working off an autonomic power source," the boy said "And because he's straight out of the box, he needs to charge up for a while."

Who were they talking about? Faith heard that voice once more, Buffy's voice.

"So, what's he charging up for?" she asked.

"Based on the clues, I'll go with killing spree." Xander said, his voice somewhat deeper than Faith remembered, and his fashion sense even worse than before.

"And that's a best-case scenario." That unknown boy replied, "Suppose a little firepower would be a good idea right now."

He picked up a strange gold and black rifle, and flipped a switch or two causing a powering up sequence to occur.

"Hey! How'd you do that?" Xander said with his usual impatience, running over to the boy, "Is there like an on-off button somewhere in here?"

"Blasters are easy, Adam won't be." The boy said. Faith didn't even process his words when she saw Buffy drape her arm over the boy and around his neck, then pull him in and kiss his head. More emotions... Of jealousy... And anger. For a moment, she saw the boy as Angel, then that snapshot was gone.

"Since Professor Walsh designed it," Willow started, "any chance she left instructions lying around somewhere?"

Faith had few feelings for Willow. Willow hated her because she was close to Buffy... That girl had no idea how close they actually were. Faith shut down that thought and went back to angrily staring at Buffy and the boy.

Faith didn't listen to the rest of the conversation, as soon as Buffy got a phone call, Faith ducked out and left.

XOXOXOXOX

"What did you tell him?" Willow asked Buffy.

"The truth- That she's my wacky identical cousin from England and whenever she visits, hijinks ensue." Buffy lied.

"It's good you guys have such an honest relationship." Willow played along.

"No, I told him the story." Buffy said, already upset at having to deal with Faith again, but that she had to feed her boyfriend a black bar filled story of her past at the worst time, "I vagued up a few bits, but no flat-out lies."

Don't-ask-don't-tell and it isn't lying, Buffy thought.

"That's fair. How'd you handle the Angely parts?"

"I did some editing. I don't want to lie to Riley, but I didn't want to tell him everything... There's dark stuff in that story, and it's for much later, when we aren't hunting Faith."

"Any luck?"

"Couldn't find her. Don't know exactly where to place that in the luck continuum." Buffy said.

Buffy looked at her watch and motioned for Willow to start walking with her. They were headed to the billboard as they continued to speak. Buffy didn't want to have to see Faith yet. She knew that the things that happened would have become twisted and blurred in Faith's post-coma mind, and they would need time to work that out. Buffy knew that she also had a better chance if she and Faith were one-on-one, if her friends were around, Faith wouldn't say what she really meant.

"I'll bet every cop in Sunnydale is out there looking for her right now." Willow said, cutting into Buffy's thoughts.

"Pressure's definitely high. I'll tell you, if I were her, I'd get outta dodge posthasty." Buffy said, as a girl in front of her turned around to reveal a familiar face.

"You're not me." Faith said.

Not here, Buffy thought, not now. Buffy was still shocked to see Faith after so long. Oddly, she was different. She was so much angrier and scarier.

"So, check you out, B. Nice. The big girl on campus thing's really working out for you." Faith said, with fake sincere grins.

"I've been looking for you." Buffy said, choking on emotions. Like always, she had a much worse view of the girl when she wasn't looking into her eyes.

"I've been standing still for 8 months, B. How hard did you look?"

"Are you alright?" Buffy asked, her concern was a bit too much for Faith's public show. Buffy knew Faith wouldn't tell her what she was feeling in a crowd, but she knew that she was twisted and messed up from her time in the coma, so it was worth a shot.

"5 by 5. That's the thing about a coma-You wake up all rested and rejuvenated and ready for payback." Faith glared at the younger Slayer.

"So much for pleasantries, huh?" Buffy said, knowing that Faith's feelings were buried and that what she said here going to be a show of how strong she was. Faith wanted to show Willow and everyone that she was evil. Buffy, on the other hand, knew that Faith was feeling differently than she was acting, or so she hoped.

"What'd you think, I'd wake up and we'd go for tea? I stabbed myself for you, blondie." Faith said.

Faith turned to Willow and gave an evil grin, winking at the Red-head. It was a torture session for Buffy.