Summary: This is a one shot alternate ending to the episode Sanctuary from the first season of Angel. For those of you who aren't complete geeks like me and don't have the names of every single episode of Buffy and Angel memorized, this is the episode where Faith decides that she wants to change and ultimately turns herself in to the police. It starts just as Buffy is going up to the roof to catch Faith. I'm posting this story in both the Ats and Btvs sections because although it's technically from Angel my version is Buffy and Faith centric who are both originally from Btvs. It starts just as Buffy goes up to the roof to catch Faith when the watcher's counsel guys show up. That's pretty much all I'm going to say because although I know a good summary is what brings in the readers…I hate to give away the whole plot and all that jazz so just give it a read and see how you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters for Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel The Series. They are property of Joss Whedon and the rest of the gang from Mutant Enemy. Also some of the beginning dialog is taken directly from the episode Sanctuary.

Feedback: Always always always welcome! I love to know what people think even if you don't like it so feel free to review please!

A/N: Even though this is a one shot I'm splitting it up into two parts because it's nearly 7,000 words and I thought it would just be too long to post as one individual chapter. So I'm posting part one now and then I'll leave you guys in anticipation for a little while and then I'll post the second part lol. Anyway I hope you all enjoy the story!

Sanctuary

Part One:

When Buffy reached the roof she spotted Faith almost instantly. The dark haired slayer was looking out at the city silently. For a short moment Buffy just stood there behind her. "You're not gonna run, Faith," she said with determination.

Faith closed her eyes at the sound of Buffy's voice, but she didn't move, she didn't try and run. "What do you wanna do? You're gonna throw me off the roof?" she asked, and then after a small pause she added with a roll of her eyes, "Again?"

The blonde slayer slowly walked a little closer to the other slayer. "Any reason why I shouldn't?"

The younger slayer turned around to face Buffy with a look of defeat. "There is nothing I can do for you, B," she stated clearly. "I can't ever make it right."

Buffy continued to slowly walk towards Faith with an angry look apparent on her face. "So you're just going to take off again. Leave us to clean up yet another one of your messes," she said with frustration.

Now Faith too began to slowly walk towards Buffy. "It would make things easier for you."

"Till you got bored with the whole guilt thing," Buffy countered. "Decided to come back to shake things up?"

"That's not gonna happen," the younger slayer insisted.

Both slayers were now pretty much face to face at this point. Buffy's face was still fixed with rage. "You're right," she responded. "It's not."

Faith turned away and slightly shook her head. "Angel said there was no way you were gonna give me a chance."

"I gave you every chance!" Buffy insisted enthusiastically. "I tried so hard to help you, and you spat on me." She paused for a moment to let that sink in. "My life was just something for you to play with. Angel…Riley…anything that you could take from me…you took." Faith looked back at the older slayer with guilt in her eyes as she waited for her to continue. "I've lost battles before…but nobody else has ever made me a victim."

The younger girl took a moment to think about what she'd just heard. Then she responded sincerely, "And you can't stand that." Her emotions began to rise as she continued. "You're all about control. You have no idea what it's like on the other side! Where nothing's in control, nothing makes sense! There is just pain and hate and nothing you do means anything. You can't even…"

"Shut up!" Buffy interrupted heatedly.

For a moment the two slayers just stood there and looked at each other. Then Faith looked deep into Buffy's eyes and pleaded, "Just tell me how to make it better."

To this, Buffy was speechless. She wasn't exactly sure how to respond. Faith actually looked like she was completely serious. She looked as if she truthfully wanted to make things better and that was something the older slayer was not expecting.

Before Buffy could find words to respond, Faith continued. "Please Buffy, just tell me what to do. I know how much I hurt you. You were the only person who ever really tried to be my friend. You were the only person who ever actually wanted to help me. And instead of embracing that I pushed you away. I made it a point to hurt the one person I lo…" She stopped herself from finishing.

A confused look appeared on Buffy's face as she tried to figure out what the rouge slayer was about to say. She had an idea of what it sounded like it could have been but there was no possible way that could be it. Before she had the chance to think on it further Faith continued.

"I know you don't wanna hear it, B," Faith continued. "But I really am sorry."

Before Buffy could respond she heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance. Faith's eyes immediately shot to the sky. She heard it too. "We need to get out of here," Buffy insisted.

Faith looked at her with confusion. "What?" She couldn't figure out why Buffy seemed to be trying to help her.

"You heard me," Buffy snapped. "We can jump a couple of roofs and go down a fire escape. We'll find a place to hide for a little while." The dark slayer still looked confused. Buffy grabbed her wrist and began to run towards a near by building. "Let's go!"

After Wesley dealt with Weatherby, one of the watcher's counsel's thugs, in Angel's apartment, he and Angel rushed up to the roof top only to find that it was empty. The vampire and the former watcher franticly searched the entire roof but came up empty. "Do you think we're too late?" Wesley asked with worry.

Before Angel could respond Collins, another member of the watcher's counsel, burst through the door to the roof and began to open fire. Angel and Wesley rushed to take cover as they listened to a helicopter position itself above them. "Where is she vampire?" Collins yelled as he took a break from firing to make sure he was heard.

"Nope," Angel responded to Wesley's earlier question. "Looks like we're not too late." Just then Smithy, the last of the counsel members, began to fire from the helicopter giving Angel and Wes little room for cover.

"The helicopters close enough for me to reach," Angel began to explain to the former watcher. "Can you take the other guy?"

A look of determination appeared on Wesley's face. He nodded his head triumphantly. "He'll be distracted when you go out into the open. That's when I'll make my move."

Angel nodded his head. Then he looked around at his surroundings once more, listening to the constant gun fire before making his move. He ran out into the open and jumped as high as he could. Luckily it was just high enough to allow him to grab onto the bottom of the helicopter. He quickly reached up his hand and easily pulled Smithy out of the chopper and sent him flying.

Meanwhile as soon as Collins was distracted by Angel, Wesley rushed towards him and was able to knock him to the ground sending his gun flying in the process. He continued by repeatedly punching him across his jaw until he was unconscious.

After Angel had disposed of his man, he pulled himself up into the helicopter, vamped out, and then instructed the pilot to take them down. When the chopper was safely on the ground Angel met up with Wesley. "What now?" Wesley asked loudly so that he could be heard over the helicopter.

"I don't know where they would have gone but we have to find them," Angel answered. "Whatever it takes."

After some extensive running and looking around, Buffy and Faith were able to find an abandoned factory to hide out in. "This should do for a little while," Buffy said as they walked into the dark factory. "We'll hide out here until we can be sure we aren't being looked for."

Faith simply fallowed the blonde slayer into the factory in silence. She wasn't really sure why Buffy was helping her but she was glad for it, so she decided to keep her mouth shut. There was no telling what the watcher's council would do with a rouge slayer. Faith had decided long before she was even put into a coma that she would take jail over them any day. At least with jail she knew what was coming.

Inside the factory the slayers found that it was empty but slightly furnished. It was clear that on occasion homeless people most likely crashed there. There were a few rolled up sleeping bags, some empty food cans, an oil lamp and even an old, ratty looking futon in the far corner.

Buffy raised her eye brows in surprise that people actually lived like that. "Well…let's hope the people who live here won't be coming home any time soon."

Faith just nodded her head. She was still somewhat afraid to speak. She looked around the large room, walked to one of the walls and sat down with her back up against it. She took a long, deep breath and closed her eyes as she exhaled. She raised her hands to her face and rubbed it with exhaustion.

Buffy quickly moved to the oil lamp and found a book of matches sitting next to it. She figured out how to work the lamp and lit the fuse. The windows of the factory were all boarded up so it had been almost completely dark. The lamp made the large room much brighter then it was but it was still fairly hard to see.

Then Buffy took a deep breath as she tried to decide what to do next. The two of them couldn't just sit there for a few hours and not say a word to one another. There was too much that could be said. Too much that needed to be said.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence Buffy decided to speak. "Look Faith, if we're going to be stuck here with each other for a while I think there's some things that need to be said." When she knew that she had Faith's attention she slowly walked closer to her as she continued. Her ton changed as the frustrations from their previous conversation began to return. "There's some things that I wanna know, Faith. And I want these things that you're going to tell me to be completely honest." She paused for a moment and then continued. "You owe me that."

Faith slowly stood up and straightened herself out before responding. "Alright, B. What do you wanna know?" Buffy had a point. Faith owed her so much more then she could ever give after all that she'd done to her so she decided to play her little game.

The older slayer crossed her arms in front of her as she tried to contain her anger. "There's actually only really one thing that I wanna know," she responded. "Why? I wanna know why." She let that sit for a moment and then continued to explain. "I want to know why after everything I tried to do for you, every time I tried to help you, you still treated me like and enemy. I wanna know why you couldn't just put your bull shit aside and just let me help you instead of pushing me away. I wanna know why you felt like you needed to take everything away from me. Why, Faith? Why?"

Faith took a moment to think about how she wanted to respond. She knew the answer to Buffy's question. For a long time she hadn't but it all hit her after she'd switched back to her own body. It all started to make sense.

"Alright, B," she responded emotionlessly. "I'll be completely honest with you but you're really not gonna like what I have to say I'm warning you right now. And you're not gonna understand it either because I barely understand it myself."

Buffy just shrugged her shoulders. "Try me." She relaxed herself as she waited for Faith to explain.

The younger slayer shrugged her shoulders as well. "Alright, you asked." She paused for a moment as she tried to figure out where she should start. "Well of course I guess it all started with the whole crappy childhood thing. You know…mommy didn't love me, daddy wasn't around, that kind of thing. But I don't really like to make excuses like that cuz I like to believe that no matter how you were brought up you can still change. You make your own personality and beliefs and stuff yah know?"

Buffy was trying to fallow what Faith was saying but she wasn't really sure what she was trying to get at. Buffy thought that maybe the younger slayer was losing her mind but then she realized that she was probably just rambling because she couldn't figure out how to explain what she was really trying to say.

"Anyway," Faith continued. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought at first that my crappy childhood was the reason why I've done all the horrible things that I've done, and I'm sure that does have something to do with it, but that still didn't make complete sense. That doesn't explain why I put most of the hurt on you."

Now was when Buffy really began to pay attention. She could tell that Faith had a theory on why she'd hurt Buffy so much and the senior slayer was more then anxious to hear what that was.

Faith paused for a while before continuing. What she was about to say was going to be hard to get out and she was extremely scared as to how Buffy was going to react. She looked down for a moment feeling that she wasn't going to be able to look the other slayer in the eyes when she said what needed to be said.

"You see, B, there's somethin that I never told you before," the dark slayer continued. "Something that I never thought I would tell you but that I've been holding in for a long time now." Then she started to laugh a little. "It's actually pretty crazy but…" her ton changed back to serious, "If you want the truth."

She brought her eyes back up to meet Buffy's as she realized that she had to be looking at her to say this. "I'm in love with you, B."

The younger slayer searched Buffy's eyes for any reaction that she could find. She found none. The blonde slayer seemed to have become a statue at the sound of those words. She just stood there with an emotionless expression glued onto her face.

Faith decided to take this time try and explain. "I've loved you pretty much since the day I met you," she continued. "I tried to make it go away because I knew you'd never be able to feel the same way about me. That's why I couldn't be you're friend. I knew that if we were friends we would get closer but I'd never be able to get as close as I wanted and I didn't wanna go through that."

She waited for a moment to see if the other slayer had any reactions yet. When Faith realized that she still didn't, she continued. "I know you're probably wondering what this has to do with answering your original question…among other things." She thought for a moment on how she should explain. "I guess…I guess that since I knew I couldn't be with you, I decided it would be easier to hate you. After the accident with the deputy mayor…it made it easy to hate you. It made it easy to hate everyone. It made it easy to completely cut myself off. But I was so busy hating everyone else that I didn't have time to put the blame where it really belonged. I've hated a lot of people in my life but oddly enough…I've never hated myself…until now."

Buffy's face was finally starting to soften and it was finally becoming apparent that she was a real person and not just a statue. She was slowly coming out of her shock but she wasn't fully out yet.

"I pushed you away and I hurt you…because I love you," Faith tried to explain. "It doesn't make any sense but I guess it's like that old saying…you always hurt the one you love…or something like that." She ran her fingers through her hair and looked to the ground again. "I finally started to get it when we switched bodies. I was disgusted with myself for everything I'd done." Tears were now starting to well up in her eyes but she wouldn't let them be freed. "I don't know how much Angel or Giles told you but…I got hired to kill Angel. Truth is I never would have done it. I was just trying to get him to kill me." She let a small tear escape. "Because I'm not strong enough to do it myself."

And just like that Buffy awoke from her shocked state. Her heart melted at the site of the sobbing girl trying to hold back her tears. At that moment everything that Faith had done in the past, everything that she's put Buffy through just didn't seem to matter. Despite everything that had happened in their past all Buffy wanted to do was comfort her.

With a sad look on her face Buffy slowly walked over to Faith and gently whipped the fallen tear from her cheek. "Don't say that," she ordered firmly but in a soft, caring ton.

Faith was incredibly confused. This was not the reaction that she'd been expecting at all. After all she'd done to this girl and then she just had the nerve to tell her that the reason for all of it was because she loved her. Buffy had no reason for being this compassionate towards her. "Why not, B? It's what I deserve. I would have thought you of all people would want me dead."

This really began to frustrate Buffy. "God you really don't get it do you, Faith?" she asked heatedly. "Why do you think I tried so hard to be your friend? To help you? Why do you think that when you got out of your coma looking for vengeance I still wanted to try and help you and make things right between us? Why the hell do you think that after everything you've done to me I still let you go when our bodies got switched back?" Then her ton of voice began to calm a little as she finished. "Why do you think I'm here with you right now, helping you, after all you've done?"

The other slayer tried to put everything together that the blonde was telling her and make sense of it. She had a feeling about where this might be going but she couldn't believe it. There was no way it could be possible. She looked at the older slayer with confusion in her eyes. "What are you trying to say, B?"

Buffy opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. She looked down to the ground as she tried to collect her thoughts and figure out exactly how she was going to say what she knew was time to make known. "I'm in love with you too, Faith. I have been for a long time."

Now Faith was the one in shock. Those were the last words in the entire universe that she would have ever expected to come out of Buffy's mouth in relation to her. After all she'd done, especially to her in general, there was no way in hell she deserved to be loved by the blonde slayer.

"I've never understood it," Buffy continued as tears now began to form in her own eyes. "I tried to fight it out but no matter what I did, no matter what you did, it just didn't matter. I've loved you unconditionally pretty much since the day I met you. I had every reason to hate you, especially recently…but I couldn't. I never have. I never could."

Faith just shook her head slowly at Buffy's words. "I don't understand, B. After everything I've done to you. After the hell I put you through. How could you still love me? How could you not hate me?"

She was so confused. She couldn't even allow herself to be happy that the one person she'd ever loved actually felt the same way about her. She wouldn't let herself rejoice about that because it wasn't right. She knew that she had put Buffy through too much. She didn't deserve her love.

The senior slayer thought for a moment on how she should respond to those questions. She wasn't really even a hundred percent sure herself on the answers so she had no idea how she was going to explain it to Faith. Finally, she thought of an example that might help her understand.

"To tell you the truth," she began, "I'm not even really a hundred percent sure why. I think…I think it's kind of like what happened with me and Angel though." She paused for a moment and then continued with her example. "After he…turned. I knew that it wasn't really him…but I still loved him. He did everything that he possibly could to hurt me but…I still loved him. I couldn't hate him. I couldn't kill him. I had no reason to…but I loved him."

"But he didn't have a soul then," Faith countered. "When I joined the mayor…when I killed people…I had a soul the whole time. When I hurt you…I knew exactly what I was doing. Everything I did to you…I did with a soul."

Buffy shook her head in disagreement. "But it wasn't really you," she responded calmly. "This…that I'm seeing right now. This is you…the real you. You've never really shown her to me before, but I can tell." The tears began welling up in Faith's eyes once again. "The person that did all those things last year, the person who hurt me, that was just a sad, scared girl who was unable to handle her feelings. I don't see that girl in you anymore."

Faith looked deep into Buffy's eyes. "Then you're not looking hard enough," she responded sadly. "She's still here. She's still sad, and she's still scared…and she still doesn't know what to do." Then she finally began to let her guard down and let the tears run free. "I don't know what to do, Buffy. I don't know what to do."

The older slayer immediately wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl compassionately. "Shh," she whispered into her ear, "It's going to be ok." She rocked the girl slightly and gently stroked her soft hair in an attempt to comfort her.