Ch.1

            Buffy lay silently on her bed as she listened to her best friend Willow talk about Oz over the phone.  She would smile every now and then, but she would mainly wish they could move onto a different subject since she no longer had her Angel to jabber on about.  How could I ever tell Willow that I wished she would talk less about Oz and worry more about other things that are more important, Buffy questioningly thought to herself.  "Hey, Willow, I think we'd better call it a night…I mean, it is kindave two o'clock in the morning, and I don't really want to know why you're still up," Buffy said with a small laugh.  "Sure it's ok for me to be up, since I have no life other then my slaying, but go to bed, girlie.  Besides, you have school to worry about in the morning."

            "Um, Buffy, so do you.  Why are you suddenly saying that I should get to bed?  I get more sleep during the night then you do anyways." Willow ran her fingers through her hair, said goodnight to her friend and dropped the receiver back onto its holder and retired to her bed for the night.

            Buffy looked around her room after she hung up her own phone and set it back on her desk.  She always felt like something went different through the night ever since she came back to Sunnydale from L.A. last week, especially since the fact that she found about a new slayer, Faith.  How strange it is…its not like I really died or anything, Buffy thought to herself.   She stood from her bed and stepped over to her dresser and picked up the Claddah ring Angel had given to her the night of her seventeenth birthday.  She turned it over between her fingers and then grabbed her coat from her chair and slipped the ring into a pocket and then put on the jacket.  She could easily slip out her window without her mother knowing, but this time she felt like using the front door for a change. 

            Walking the streets at night always somehow managed to give Buffy an extra lift knowing that she could protect the people from all the knasties that lurked the streets at night.  At the moment however, she was heading over to Angel's mansion to return the ring to him by laying it on the spot where she had to send him to hell.  She glanced around her and then picked up her walking pace as she neared the mansion with every breath she took into her body.  She bit her bottom lip slightly as she stood on the doorstep and looked at the two huge wooden doors.  She slowly opened them and took a step inside and then closed the distance between her and her least favorite spot and took the ring from her jacket and placed a single kiss on it and set it on the floor.  "Goodbye, Angel."  She didn't even hear the noises coming from the mansion once she was on the street.

            "So how's Miss save the world today?  I hope she's doing better then I am," Cordelia said with a huff as their little group walked down the hellish hallways of Sunnydale High School.

            Buffy laughed softly and shrugged.  "I guess I'm doing ok, I mean, sure I could be all bouncy and say "Hi, I'm Buffy, and you're not", but that would just be wrong."

            "Ah, so Buffy isn't a perky puppy today then?"  Xander gave her a smile and stuck his hands in his pockets as they stepped into the Cafeteria for their lunch hour. 

            "Now did I say I wasn't a 'perky puppy'?  No I did not."  Buffy gave Xander her own smile and then looked to Cordelia.  "I really do pity you sometimes, Cordy."  She picked up a lunch tray and moved on down the line to get the food that she wanted. 

            "I pity myself sometimes, believe me."  Cordelia moved up in line behind Buffy as she scrunched up her nose is pure disgust of the food lain out before them.  "Thank god the food is behind the glass, otherwise I would think that it would take form and kill us all."

            Buffy looked at the beautiful brunette with a quirked brow.  "You have been around Xander way too much," she said with a shake of her head.  "Maybe it really was a good thing you two finally broke it off."  She headed over to an empty table with Cordy and sat down with her.

            "Excuse me?  I never want to hear about us even dating anymore.  It's just wrong, and it must be stopped."  Cordelia flipped her hair over her shoulder like the perfect cheerleader she was and started to slowly eat the food on her tray.

            Xander then loped up behind them and sat down in the empty seat.  "Ok, so where's Willow and Oz?  I haven't seen them basically all day."  He took a sip from his Juicy Juice and looked between the two girls.  "Why does it seem like you two were talking about me?  If you were it's ok to hurt my foolish pride."  Xander wiped away a fake tear and looked away from them as he started to eat his food.

            Buffy laughed and shook her head.  "Ok, so we were talking about you, and no, I haven't seen the two doves all day either.  Willow usually shows up at my locker at some point, but not today." 

            Xander half-smiled and said in a slow voice.  "Dum dum dum…"  He smiled sheepishly when Buffy gave him a look and then shrugged.  "Ok, so maybe it's not time for me to be making with the funny, I apologize."

            "Apology not accepted, Xander.  Why can't you keep your loser being to yourself?"  Cordelia was as usual, trying to make herself fit into the 'I'm being useful' column, but it wasn't working.       

Buffy hid a smile and looked at Xander then at Cordelia.  "Oook, I'm keeping my butt out of this one," she said as she stood with her tray in her hands and headed over to the tray drop off line.  She sighed softly as she headed out of the cafeteria and made her way down to her locker which was thankfully away from all the teens just hanging out in the hallway talking about how much they hated their teachers or how much they wished they could drop out without their parents having a heart attack over it.  She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she thought about she ran away from her mother, and from the life that she had created here.  I had to though.  It's not like I could have stayed her anyways with Snyder crawling up my back, and then there's the fact that he expelled me last year.  God, if only I could lay my hands on him and just wring the life out of him, Buffy thought to herself.  She finally made it over to her locker and she turned the lock knob over to its numbers and then opened her locker to find a note from Willow lying on top of her books.  "Like you couldn't have come to me and told me?  Geez, I'm talking to myself now, great, fantastic…"  She looked around her to make sure someone hadn't called the police on her because of her obvious psychoness she had going on for her out in the middle on the hallway.  She shrugged and opened the note and read it over before stuffing it into the pocket of her jeans.  Okie dokie, Will, so you came here and then went home sick?  Is Oz sick with you?  God, I don't understand why she would just leave without any word to us, Buffy thought to herself.

Faith stalked the streets of Sunnydale and looked around her at all the working class people milling around because their lunch break was going on.  She glanced down at her tight leather pants and her small tank top and shrugged.  Looks good to me, Faith thought to herself.  She ran her fingers through her hair and thought about what Buffy would say if she told her she was going to try and enroll into Sunnydale High.  She smirked and shook her head and stuck her hands in her pockets.  Why should I even have to worry about crappy school anyways?  I'm the slayer, and all I should be thinking about is how I'm going to fight, and not about studying for a final.  Buffy just doesn't understand the difference between a slayer and a regular human.  I do, and I know why she thinks of me as a weak person, but I don't care what she thinks of me, I'm my own person, she thought to herself.  She would occasionally give a smile to a good looking guy that would walk by her, but otherwise she would keep her eyes on the ground as she walked.  She couldn't help but wonder how one teenage girl could spend so much time on the street and still not really know where the hell she was going without Buffy to help her along.  She's in school right now though, so what good does that do me?  If only she didn't have school, Faith thought to herself.  

Buffy rolled her eyes as a teacher called on her to answer a question from the previous night's assigned reading.  She thankfully answered the question correctly even though she didn't get to read the twenty page Women's Rights literature until 2:30 in the morning.  She scribbled down some notes as the teacher rambled on about how Susan B. Anthony did this and that back in the day.  She tapped her pen on her notebook as she looked up at the clock on the wall that seemed to tick ever so slowly.  She looked away from the clock as it seemed to tick even slower when she would stare it down with an evil glare as she wished the bell would ring.  Oh well, it's thankfully the last period of the day and then I can get in mom's car and drive home and start on my dreadful homework, Buffy thought to herself.  At least she hoped she could just go home and do her homework without Giles dragging her into an unwanted training session with the new slayer, Faith.  She really didn't know what to say around the girl since she seemed like an outsider who didn't want the human touch.  Why do I think of Rick Springfield when I think of human touch?  Oh yea, cause he had to come out with a stupid song called the "Human Touch", Buffy thought to herself.  She jumped slightly when the bell rang and the stampede of seniors rushed out of the room to end their day at school once again.  She stood and exited the room after the crowd had left and headed towards the front of the school to meet her mom out there like she had done ever since she came here when she was a sophomore and just starting to get used to her slayer capabilities.  She waved at her mom and headed over to the Cherokee car and got in.  "Hey mom, glad you could manage getting here without running down the psycho kids who think they're cool because they get to walk home.  Well haha, this Summers girl gets a ride from her mom."  She leaned over to her and gave her a peck on the cheek.

Joyce laughed and drove off.  "Someone seems to be in a good mood today, even though I sense you're really not."

Buffy shrugged and gazed out the window as the houses and kept up lawns went by.  "It was weird today, because Willow was at school, and I didn't see her…and then I find a note in my locker saying she had gone home sick.  Also what was weird, was the fact that Oz had been MIA as well.  So basically all day after lunch I had been thinking about that stupid note and trying to think of why she would just leave school."

Joyce glanced over at her daughter and then back at the road.  "Well honey, maybe Willow had a family emergency and she just had to leave.  It doesn't mean that she has to be sick, and it doesn't mean that she has to check in and out with you, Buffy."

"I know that, mom, but I just wish that I could hear from her so I can quit all my worrying and start worrying about how I'm going to get all my homework done and still manage to fit in a patrol with Faith tonight."

"Buffy, why don't you invite Faith over for dinner tomorrow night?  I would really like to meet the girl, and I'm sure she's a real sweetheart."

Buffy couldn't help but stare at Faith as she entered the graveyard in her leather pants and her tank top.  "You patrol in outfits like that?  How can you even move in those pants?"

Faith smiled and then laughed.  "Gimme a break, B, you just got to know how to dodge and punch to kill a vamp anyways."  She stretched and popped her neck and sat down in front of the gravestone Buffy was sitting on.  "So anything new happen in you life today?"

Buffy looked at Faith and tossed her stake in the air and caught it.  "I like to believe in privacy when it comes down to it, but no, nothing really 'new' happened today.  Just the fact that one of my friends just disappeared from school.  I'm trying not to think of that right now so, if you would be so kind and not ask questions about it."

"On the edge much?  Ok, yea, you want to forget about it, but maybe you should dwell on it so you can get over it."  Faith looked around her then up at the blonde slayer.  "Who was your friend?"

"Willow, the red head.  I'm not sure if you remember her or not, but she's the one who went 'poof!' with no return."  She looked at Faith and then around her.  "Hey um, would you like to come over for dinner tomorrow?  My mom would like to meet you and everything, she's the motherly type who wants to get to know my new friends."

Faith shrugged and then smiled.  "Oh I suppose I can make an appearance with a sweet smile and wave and manage to get through dinner without staining the carpet with tea or something."  She quickly got up then and took a step back and looked at Buffy.  "We get to party now, B."  She drew out her stake and leaped into the group of about seven vampires.

"Great, and we were starting to have a bonding moment and everything."  She flipped herself over the gravestone after standing and landed behind the group of vampires and dusted one from behind and threw a bone splintering kick to the spine of another and quickly dusted him.  She watched as Faith took her time pummeling one vampire and she quirked a brow.  "Um, Faith, it's called slaying for a reason, because you kill things."  She started in on the other remaining vamps that Faith hadn't even bothered to touch.

"You bitch…how could you?"  Faith slammed her fist into the vampires face again and again, even though he was way beyond being knocked unconscious.  "I spend my nights coming after you!"  She thrust the stake into the demon's heart and flipped her hair over her shoulder and threw the stake into the heart of another vamp as she stood.  She withdrew another stake and started to help Buffy with the remaining four vampires.

Buffy was again standing in front of the doors to Angel's mansion like she had been the night before.  She took in a breath and shoved them open and gasped as something lunged at her and pinned her back against the doors as they slammed closed.  She threw the attacker off her and looked at him.  Her eyes widened as she saw who it really was.  "Angel.."