Faith was tired, the last seventy two hours had been hell, her watcher was dead some crazy ancient vamp and his minions were chasing her, and she was on the run, following her watchers last words of help, on her way to Sunnydale California to get the aid of Rupert Giles and his slayer Elizabeth. Faith was thankful she had been able to get her watchers will settled before packing up and getting the hell out of dodge otherwise she would be flat broke and have no way to do anything. Diana, her watcher, was an extremely wealthy British woman and had been Faiths guardian and surrogate mother to her for the last seven years, and so had left absolutely everything to Faith in her will. It had taken a couple tension filled days after Diana's death but eventually she had gotten everything squared away.
After dealing with bank accounts and transfers and getting packed up and leaving a note for her boyfriend Rory who was out of town, she grabbed her son, hopped in her mustang (a sweet 16 present from Di) then proceeded to speed out of Boston. Now with just a few more hours left in the trip, her son sleeping in the passenger seat, she used the time driving to reflect on her life, her last name wasn't always Lehane. She remembers having a family who loved her, her mom and dad she doesn't remember too well but her twin sister, she remembers the most. Best friends, partners in crime, as different in looks and personality as light and day. Princess and Firecracker were what their parents called them and Faith admitted she was a little firecracker when she was younger. They were always getting into trouble together and they always blamed the firecracker, nobody ever suspected Princess was usually the mastermind behind their mischief, which to this day still amused Faith. She never could pull off the innocent act like her sister. On the day of their 8th birthday a car wreck changed their whole world.
Faith doesn't remember much about that horrible day. She woke up in a hospital and there was a man in her room who seemed to have been waiting for her, when she asked for her family he answered in a business like tone that they were dead and she needed to forget about them now and he would be bringing her to her new guardian. What a hell of a way to break the news to a child that her family was gone. Prick didn't even seem to care that he had just shattered an eight year olds whole world. Faith was in shock, she didn't pay attention as he drove her to an apartment on the south side of Boston and dumped her in the care of some strung out looking waitress named Rose Lehane. The only time she paid attention was when they said she had a new name and it was Faith Marie Lehane; she hated her new last name and vowed to change it back to her family's surname as soon as she could.
Rose really didn't seem to care for children too much, never really acknowledging Faith's existence but making sure she got the basics, food, shelter, a couple of outfits and things were ok for a while until Rose lost her job. Instead of going out and getting another one she blamed Faith and spent all of her time drinking or doing drugs, then she started bringing home random men, the last one was the worst, A man by the name of Gable. On Faiths eleventh birthday he decided to give himself a present, her virginity. Faith lay in her bad for hours after it was over, crying and listening to hear him leave. When he was gone she came out and told Rose what happened, big mistake. Rose was drunk and angry; she flipped out and beat Faith for being a slut and stealing her man then passed out. Faith had come from a loving family and knew what happened was wrong and wasn't going to let it happen again, she called the cops. Rose got arrested and charged with drug use, child abuse, neglect and endangerment, Gable was caught and charged with her rape. The social services didn't know what to do with Faith and were about to put her in an orphanage when Diana showed up and adopted her.
Faith was wary of this new guardian at first which was understandable when you remember what the last one was like. It took a while but eventually she began to open up and consider the lady a mother especially when Faith found out she was pregnant from that pervert Gable. Being only eleven Faith had freaked out but when Diana said they could get rid of the pregnancy or give it up for adoption Faith had refused, stating she may not have wanted it but the baby was hers and after losing her family she was determined not to lose anymore. Diana had supported her and helped her through the pregnancy, on October 4th Faith gave birth to a healthy baby boy who she named Kyler. Diana immediately fell into the role of doting grandmother, doing everything she could to take care of Faith and help with Kyler.
At 13 Faith was attacked by a werewolf on her way home from the store, she was saved by a boy who had been passing by. Faith woke up in the hospital where her leg was stitched and wrapped. The doctor explained that she had been bitten by a wild animal and passed out from blood loss but lucky for her, her friend had scared it off, that's when she noticed a boy standing in the corner next to her watcher. A little taller than Faith, He was looking down and shifting from one foot to the other nervously, he had light skin and shaggy auburn hair, his clothes seemed frayed and worn out. When he finally looked up Faith caught his eyes and gasped, they were the most vivid blue she had ever seen. As they stared at each other neither one noticed the doctor leaving until Diana spoke:
"Faith, you know better than to walk alone at night, especially during a full moon, this young man here told me it was a werewolf that bit you. I need you to describe the beast to me, unfortunately there are different strands of the curse and we need to figure out which one it was, it will make coping with your new condition easier."
Di, seeing that Faith was in shock at the news, walked up to the bed and wrapped her in a tight hug trying to reassure her.
"Don't worry my dear, your still the same person you were, I'll help you learn to control it. I'm just glad your still here, if it hadn't been for young Rory here things might have been far worse. I talked to him while you were out and it seems he has nowhere to go. He is half bracken demon and his family was recently killed by a group of vampires, he was looking for somewhere to sleep when he saw the werewolf attack you. He's 15 and if it's alright with you I'd like him to come live with us."
Faith absorbed everything her watcher was saying and looked at Rory, he looked back at her and she noticed the grief and tentative hope in his eyes. She remembered how she felt when she was told her family was gone and how alone she was until Diana found her. According to her watcher he was half demon but that didn't matter to Faith, after all was she not now going to be a werewolf? He was just a kid like her, lonely and lost, not quite human, she was grateful to him for the help and it would be nice to have someone her age to talk to about supernatural stuff, to have someone else around who was different like her.
She gave Rory a smile before speaking to him: "Thank you for saving my life. I know how hard it is to lose your family and feel alone. If you want to come live with us I agree with Di, it would be nice having someone around my age I can talk to and I think my son Kyler would like you."
Diana became the foster mother of Rory Flynn, something he would be forever grateful for. Little Kyler grew attached to Rory very fast and even started calling him daddy, this made Rory nervous until Faith reassured him that it was alright. Faith and Rory also grew very close, becoming a couple when Faith turned 15. Rory loved his new family and was very protective of them, especially Kyler whom he had considered his since the very first daddy.
Diana taught Faith about her calling but also felt she needed to plan for a future and get a proper education to care for her son, first she decided to do some tests to gauge where Faith was academically. That's how they discovered Faith was a genius and right away they set to work on pursuing a higher education, by the time Faith was 14 she had finished high school and was ready to start college, she decided to pursue a degree in nursing and languages figuring it would be helpful if she ever got called and by the time she was 17 she had her degree and was done with college and could speak an impressive amount of dead and demonic languages, not to mention French, Spanish, German, Italian, mandarin, and Greek, all of which she made sure to teach to Kyler, Diana thought that with his intelligence he could make a decent watcher some day and he should learn as much as he can even if he didn't become a watcher. Her son was like a mini version of her, the only difference was that he was male and had black hair, everything else was pure Faith. From the chocolate eyes and dimples to the confident attitude and startling intelligence. He was a little charmer and the smartest kid in Boston, and thanks to having Diana as a grandmother he was also very polite.
Faith broke out of her thoughts as she passed the welcome to Sunnydale sign driving into town and grabbing a decent motel for the night deciding to rest. Tomorrow she would drop Kyler off at a daycare then off to Sunnydale high to speak to this Giles guy, he was the librarian. Faith went to bed thinking that tomorrow she would finally have help with Kakistos and in making sure nothing happens to Kyler.
