Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and i am not making money from this. This is for entertainment purposes only, i own nothing. So please don't sue me, i'm poor!

Note: This is the start of a longer story. I can't promise that it will ever be completed, only time will tell. I had it in my mind to make this become a Buffy/Faith pairing eventually; but that may change. There is someone else i would quite like to pair Faith with..

It should also be noted that this is my first attempt at writing any kind of fanfic, so i'm sorry if it sucks. I hadn't planned to ever post this online, but a friend of mine's constant nagging has finally pushed me to do it. Cass, i hope you're happy!

Old Beginnings, New Endings

Faith the vampire slayer, formerly a psychotic killer and bitter enemy of one Miss Buffy Summers, sat behind the bullet proof glass with a look of complete confusion on her face. And this wasn't just because it seemed the world was about to come to an end..again. No, the real root of her confusion was coming from the small blonde that sat on the other side of the glass with the phone at her ear and a gentle smile on her face. The two slayers had been talking civily now for about fifteen minutes and not a single smart comment or sarcastic insult had passed Buffy's lips, this bothered Faith, a lot. Even the manner in which Buffy had showed up at visiting today was all wrong, she had been far too pleased to see her and had instantly lept in to conversation as if this was one of the most normal things in the world. Never mind the fact that the last time they had spoken she had threatened to beat Faith to death. Something was extremly wrong.

"..So anyway, as i said before, i really think we can learn to put the past behind us and move on if we just give it a try." Buffy finally wrapped her little speech and waited expectantly for an answer; still with that creepy, all too happy expression on her face.

Faith shook shook her head slightly as she tried to think of how to respond. This had all happened so fast. This morning had just been another day in the clink and now suddenly, in the blink of an eye, it had all changed. She sat there now in silence and took the time to really study the blonde before her. It seemed that time had been kind to the young woman and she still looked as beautiful as ever, with that golden hair, and small frame which belied just how strong and tough she really was. The only thing Faith noticed that had changed was the eyes. It wasn't right to call them lifeless exactly, but they did seem dulled. There was no light or sparkle in them anymore and none of her smiles seemed to reach them. It was almost as if all the emotion had been drained from them and they had stopped reflecting her feelings. She didn't know why, but it filled Faith with a profound sadness to look at them and get nothing back. It also made Buffy's current bright mood and lively conversation seem even more wrong and out of place. The falsness of it all was confusing. What was going on?

"Faith...? You in there?"

The brunette started a little at the voice and realised she'd let her thoughts run away with her, "Sorry, B. I'm with ya, its just..." she let her sentence trail off.

What could she say? What Buffy was offering was something she had dreamed of for a long time; freedom and more importantly forgiveness. So why then did it feel so wrong? Faith ran a hand through her mess of dark hair in frustration. It wasn't supposed to go down like this. She took a breath and fixed Buffy with a firm look.

"All right, heres the sitch," Faith finally managed to find her words, "last time we met, it wasn't exactly roses. And i've done things to you, B! Terrible things that you've never been able to forgive me for." She paused for a moment to see if any of this was getting through, but Buffy's face was unreadable, "and that night you came to LA, lets face it, you wanted revenge, plain and simple."

At this moment the blonde opened her mouth to protest but Faith cut her off and continued, "And i get that the world is in some kind of danger from a big bad and my slayerness would come in useful. But you and the scoobies are always fighting this kinda stuff all the time and you've never needed me before. So what's changed?" At this the slayer put up her hand to stop Buffy from answering and quickly added, "And don't gimme the 'i want to move on and be friends' speech again coz i'm not buying it"

Buffy sat opposite her dark counterpart and suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. Nothing was ever simple when it came to this girl! She hadn't wanted to come here and speak to the woman before her, in fact just looking at her sitting there behind the glass filled her with all kinds of mixed up emotions; most of them dark ones. Faith had been right on the money in thinking that she had wanted revenge, and remembering the argument with Angel in which he blantently defended the bitch made her blood boil.

But all these feelings needed to be forced beneath the surface for now, and Buffy thought she had been doing a pretty good job of it. The key was to just keep talking, and smiling and talking some more. The babblefest meant that she wasn't giving herself time to dwell on the evilness that was Faith. She could just power through and get this over with. Unfortunantly Faith was not as willing to bust out of jail as she had counted on. Typical really, even now the other slayer defied expectations.

She reguarded the brunette with a cool expression and tried one last time to convince her to break out. She decided to use Faith's guilt this time instead of spinning some story about forgetting the past as that clealy hadn't worked, "You remember that time up on the roof when you asked how to make it better?"

The slayer gave a quick nod of her head and Buffy could see from the look in her eyes that she the remembered that night vivdily. She watched as the woman leaned in a bit closer and gave her full attention. Buffy locked her eyes on to the other slayer's and her next words were said with much more sincerity than anything she had said so far, the tone was firm and even, "Well this would be a start. I need you to do this for me."

It seemed despite all her uncertainty and earlier reservations, this had sold her and Buffy couldn't help but feel relieved. Now she could finally get Faith out of here and prepare for the beginning of the end.

Faith rose from her chair with a look of determination on her face, "Step away from the glass".