Faith stumbled trying to save….well, not the world, but probably the house. Who would have thought, she could do world class gymnastics, she had mastered more than a dozen martial arts, she could juggle with one hand and stake a vampire with the other…..but half an hour into her attempts to make cookies and it looked like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen, complete with several small fires and a cupboard door hanging on less than one full hinge. She pulled the cookies out of the oven….forgetting a mitt and dropping them. Lumps of chocolate chip charcoal rolled or broke everywhere. 'DAMMIT!' she yelled at the top of her lungs. She had hoped to do something nice for her friends, next time should would build something with power tools, much more her speed.
Faith was shaking with anger and frustration, ready to throw the baking pan THROUGH the wall when she felt another hand on her own. Tara hugged her gently, and Faith felt the anger give way to love. Not romantic love like Willow and Tara shared, but the love one would have for a sister. Faith had dated Buffy on and off since her return, having been released to help with that tacky hellgod Glory a year earlier, and basically to serve her sentence in the form of Slaying community service(competing for Buffy's affection with Spike, whom Faith had also dated), but Tara was the one she was actually closest to. The blonde witch had such a beautiful soul, and Faith treasured what they had. Tara had endured an even worse childhood than Faith, and she wasn't a fighter, it had traumatized her, left her with severe confidence issues. Faith had missed the Maclay clan by only a few weeks, which was lucky. She had made it quite clear after getting to know Tara, if any of them ever set foot in Sunnydale again, Faith was going back to prison. Buffy was a friend, but knowing that there was a Slayer who would GLADLY break the arm of anyone who laughed at her stutter had seemed to do a world of good for Tara's confidence.
Faith sighed, turning to hug Tara back 'I was gonna bake stuff for the gang….I'm sorry'. Tara smiled 'nothing we can't fix!'. Faith may have been just the person to help Tara fight her demons, but Faith had some issues of her own. Tara was her rock in a way nobody but Angel had ever come close to being. They would wake each other from nightmares, but when Tara was near, Faith found it easier to fight the rage, guilt, shame, hatred, and assorted other emotions that threatened to consume her waking hours. She held Tara's hand, feeling the conflict drain away. "Better?" asked Tara. Faith nodded "good, because we really do need to restore this kitchen, that fire over there…whoops!" one of the small fires made it from the spatula to the counter. Faith sighed as she went to put it out. The two young women got to work, and between magic and super strength, they had the kitchen salvaged in short order.
Not long after they finished, Willow and Buffy got back from the mall. Faith and Tara rarely went, a crowded area full of careless people in pursuit of material goods didn't much appeal to either. Buffy went out to the yard, she had seen Xander coming back to reconcile, and the other three decided to give them some space. Willow was trying to navigate the stairs with several large bags, and doing a comically poor job of it, dropping one. Faith caught it before it hit the ground "come on goofball, give me those!". They got upstairs, Willow was animatedly telling Tara about an ESPECIALLY cute puppy they had seen at the mall. Tara was smiling brightly, her back to the window. All seemed well.
Suddenly, Faith heard a raised voice in the backyard, courtesy of her enhanced Slayer hearing, and it wasn't a friend. "Hey Tara, Willow, how about you two just step over here for a second" she said, taking Tara's hand and guiding her away from the window "I'm just gonna go check outside and see if.." at that moment, there were multiple loud popping noises. Faith heard the window break behind her, and it felt like a burning fist had just punched her in the shoulder, like a Slayer punch, but on fire. I knocked her flat on her back, but this was the person who had been stabbed by Buffy, had fought dozens of monsters, who had taken a childhood of abuse, and the injuries of a hundred demonic battles, it didn't stop her. "Tara, Willow, DROP!" she commanded, putting herself back in between them and where the danger seemed to have come from.
They waited for several seconds, and then when it seemed there would be no more bullets, they hurried outside (Faith grabbing a crossbow on the way out and keeping the witches firmly behind her). They were met with a shocking scene, Xander kneeling over Buffy, on the phone, calling for help. And Buffy, so strong, so brave, usually appearing invincible, lying there with a spreading bloodstain on her clothes, eyes unfocused. "Warren?" asked Faith, Xander nodded grimly. When the ambulance arrived, Faith had Willow get in with Buffy, the redhead sending a steady flow of healing magic. It was beyond her or Tara to fix Buffy, but they could keep her alive while the surgeons worked. Faith drove the car for the three remaining. Tara was shaking like a leaf, Faith drove with one hand and hugged her with the other the entire way. When they arrived, Buffy was rushed into surgery. Willow and Tara used an amulet to send healing energy as they sat in the waiting room. Xander paced anxiously, Faith….Faith replayed the moment in her head, over and over again. Something bothered her beyond the obvious, but she couldn't place it. Then it hit her, she knew bullet trajectory basics, a gun was a weapon, and Faith made it her job to know weapons. The bullet had passed where Tara had been standing she realized, if Faith hadn't moved Tara, her dearest friend would have been killed! Faith growled in hatred, she tried to clench her fist, crack the armrest of her chair…and realized she already had. She was feeling a bit lightheaded, and she realized from her shoulder down was wet with blood. She had blocked out the pain in the heat of the moment, but with the adrenaline fading, it hurt like HELL.
She got up, trying not to stumble, not to worry her friends. She approached a nurse "excuse me ma'am, are there any surgeons free at the moment, even a medical student would be fine, I seem to have been…shot, just a little". She stumbled, only to be caught by Tara, who had spotted a blood on the ground. She saw Tara calling her name, but her ears were buzzing, and then she blacked out. Before her thoughts went blank, a stream of Slayer-dream images flashed in her head, then all was silent.
She woke up in a hospital bed, but the nurse told her it had only been a few hours. They had gotten the bullet out, it hadn't hit anything important, and she seemed to be healing more quickly than they could make sense of, which Faith smirked at. Buffy was also going to be fine, but she had been in much worse shape and wasn't ready for visitors. Tara had come in, had hugged her. The witch had tried to say something, but she had three false starts and had to run out of the room, much to Faith's confusion and concern.
Willow explained that they had used a spell to look back and figure out when she had been shot. Tara had figured out that Faith had saved her life, taken the bullet that would have claimed her, and hadn't made a sound of discomfort all that time to protect her….it had just left her emotionally fragile and shaken. Under the blanket, Faith had clenched her fists until her nails cut into her palms, she didn't care about her injury, she had endured worse, from friends, foes, lovers. If Faith could take ALL of the pain for her friends, she would gladly do so, even if it killed her, but this….was not that. She had taken the physical pain, but Warren had still managed to damage the people she loved. The crimes he would answer for were piling up rapidly.
Late that night, when the other Scoobies were asleep in the hospital waiting room, Faith got to work. She was mostly healed, not completely, but more than enough for what she needed to do. She went to the travel bag she had brought in earlier from the car and changed out of the hospital gown into her black slaying clothes, then climbed out the window, leaving a note in case anyone checked in, saying that she just needed to get some fresh air, nothing for them to worry about. She went to the car, digging through the bag in the back seat until she found her knife. Fastening it to her belt, Faith turned and ran. The dream fragments as she blacked out had showed her a place in the woods that she knew well, and she was fairly certain it was where she was meant to find her prey.
As Faith ran into the woods, she slammed into another running figure who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. A crossbow bolt whizzed past her ear, and her knife was out in a flash, and held to….Spike? "sorry" wheezed the vampire, catching the breath that only mattered in his head "not used to these silly crossbows, misfire". Faith sighed and helped him up "yeah, that's a first, why are you carrying it? And what are you doing out here?" Spike scowled "I took it offa Niblet. She had it all loaded and was looking to come after Warren. Bloody terrifying she was. She only agreed to hand it over when I promised her that Warren wasn't getting away, but I needed her to stay safe and out of the way for me to hunt….. Don't worry, I left her with Clem. She would have to beat him up to leave, and Dawnie wouldn't hit that one" Spike added the last bit quickly as Faith glared.
The Slayer sighed "okay, questionable judgement aside, it WOULD be nice to have company who knows a thing or two about pain" she glared again "just to be clear, you aren't coming to let him off with a beating and a warning, right? Warren is going to DIE when I catch him, any objections?" Spike laughed "are you bloody JOKING? I haven't been allowed to kill anyone in years, and this sodding chip doesn't help. I can help you catch him, then sit back with a cold one and give you pointers, I was trying to figure out how I was gonna be able to kill him MYSELF with this bit of wires in my noggin!'
The two deadliest individuals in Sunnydale (since Buffy had slipped Willow some of the medicine she had been given. It didn't work on Slayers, but it did a NUMBER on smallish regular humans, it was that or watch the hospital windows blow out) ran through the night in silence until they heard footsteps. Warren came around a tree, swinging an axe…it didn't help, at all. Faith kneecapped him with the flat of the axe. Despite the pain, he still managed arrogance 'oh boo hoo, what, did I hurt your little girlfriend?' Faith shrugged 'nope, she's taken. You DID shoot my best friend though…actually both of them, and I thought MY life choices weren't great'.
Over the next couple hours, with Spike sharing knowledge picked up over decades of violence, Faith delivered a level of retribution on Warren which would have made Dhoffryn weep with joy. He begged for mercy, then he begged for death, then he just screamed. By the time Faith and Spike had cleaned up and parted ways, the sun was rising, and Faith needed to be back at the hospital or her friends would worry.
A few hours later, when the nurses allowed visitors back in her room, Tara had pancakes for everyone. They were worried about Warren, but Faith said she'd called old friends to take him far, far away. For Tara's sake, she wouldn't even say someone ELSE had killed him, they just accepted that he wouldn't be back. Tara had been up all night, unable to sleep, but seeing that Faith would be fine, she closed her eyes right there in the chair and was out like a light. Faith watched her sleep, smiling softly. She didn't regret what she had done to Warren, that side of her would always be there, but with Tara there as her best friend in the world, Faith WOULD become someone she could be proud of.