Chapter Two

Faith had spent most of the day sleeping. No matter how hard she tried to wake up for more than a couple minutes, she couldn't do it. 'That bitch B really fucked me up. Her time will come as soon as I can get out of here.' She was jolted out of her thoughts of revenge by a verbal commotion just outside the barn. She strained her eyes and cursed Buffy again for causing her not to be able to focus. From what she could make out, the man was slapping the woman who helped her. They were in front of the barn and he was yelling at her that she didn't get all the morning work done before her classes.

Faith may have gone all psycho-slayer and desired to kill most of the residents of Sunnydale but abuse was one thing she hated. She'd spent too many years living through beatings and mental abuse until she was old enough to break away. Besides, the girl had spent most of the night helping Faith and Faith wasn't taking too kindly to her being treated this way. 'Why the fuck should you care slayer? You're a murderer, it's no bother that some stupid girl is gonna sit and take beatings from her family.'

Faith continued watching as a younger man joined the fray. He kicked the girl in the ribs as she lie on the ground. When she turned her face towards the barn, Faith saw the tears that streamed down her cheeks. She tried to stand but grew dizzy. 'Fucking B, now look someone is in need of help and I can't do it cause you had to go and gut me for that broody ass vampire that you can't even have a good lay with or he'll go all evil.'

The two men finally left the girl alone telling her to get the barn work finished before suppertime. Faith closed her eyes again as Tara made her way back inside the barn. She had a black eye and several bruises but she was used to it. As Tara turned towards the haystack, Faith reopened her eyes and looked her over. "Hey," she said in a low hoarse voice and cursed Buffy once more. The more she thought of her physical condition, the more the rage fueled inside her towards Buffy.

Tara turned and looked at Faith who was trying to sit up. "Y-Y-You shouldn't do that just now," the girl stammered so bad Faith could barely understand what she was saying.

"C'mere Blondie and let me see your eye." Faith said as she cleared her throat in an effort to regain her normal voice.

"M-M-M-My name is T-T-T-Tara," she stammered walking over to the slayer.

"Faith," was all she said as she looked at Tara's eye and touched her arm. It was badly bruised just below the elbow. "You want me to help you out with your work?" Faith pointed over at the hay knowing she wasn't physically able to do much and didn't really know what they did with it anyhow.

"I-I-I-It's all right," Tara stuttered. "It's sorta heavy and I don't think you're in any shape to be doing that."

"Honestly, the only thing I know about hay is its fun to full around in." Faith smirked having realized she felt less dizzy. 'Slayer powers are fixin' me up faster than I thought.'

Tara turned a crimson color as she looked away from Faith. She wouldn't know anything about any of that having not even had a chance to go on a date before. "I-I-I-I better get this out to the cows." Tara said as a horse on the other side of the huge barn made its presence known.

Before Tara stood back up, Faith placed her hands on Tara's shoulders for support and stood up. "I'll get it Blondie." Faith slowly walked over to the hay, as Tara looked after her in utter shock.

Doing the feeding of the animals for Tara was a task for Faith but she did it. She figured it was the least she could do after how much Tara had helped her. She lay back on the now fresh blankets Tara had got for her after showing her what to do with the horses, pigs and cows. 'I knew this barn didn't smell too good.' Faith was weak and tired knowing she had to bide her time here. She needed time to gain full strength if she were going to be able to fight Buffy, if Buffy was even alive.

Everything was coming back to her, the plans of the mayor and such. She smiled a little bit at the thoughts of what Sunnydale may now look like and hoped again that her boss somehow knew she was all right. On top of all the evil thoughts running through her head, was the thought of helping this woman who helped her out. She hated abusers and from the looks of things, this girl was abused beyond comprehension.

- - - - - - -

The next evening, Tara arrived home from school and found that most of her outside chores were done. The chores Tara normally finished in a couple hours, took Faith a large part of the day due to weakness and not really knowing what to do. "Hey Blondie," Faith smiled at her from the barn. "Your dad and whoever the other guy is were gone all day. So I thought I'd help ya out a bit."

"You didn't have to do that," Tara said with a heavy stammer. "Maybe I should check your wound. You could have done damage by moving to much this soon."

"Nah," Faith leaned back against the hay. "I dressed it earlier and put some of that stuff you had in the jar over there on it." Faith pointed at the small shelf that contained a few jars of ointments and ingredients for spells on it.

"Oh I see," Tara said shyly. "You remembered which one then."

"Yeah," Faith said with a smile on her face. The slayer rarely truly smiled but something about Tara brought one out of her easily.

"Since you seem to be doing better, would you like to come in the house?" Tara offered as she wondered just what her dad had in store for this gorgeous young lady.

"Nah, I like it out here I think." Faith said not wanting to let the men see how fast she was recovering. She was still weak and knew she needed to bide herself just a little more time before going after Buffy. "So, you in school huh?"

"Today was the last day." Tara stuttered as she spoke shyly. "I was accepted to a few colleges but," she dropped her head sadly. "Dad needs help around here so I probably can't go."

Faith could tell Tara was not a good liar and knew something not so good had to be going on. Probably something worse than the shouting fest she overheard the night before. "School never was my bag," Faith said as she pondered why she was so interested in finding out about this girl. She was also intrigued as to why the rage within seemed to calm a bit when she looked into those beautiful sapphire eyes.

"My mom wanted me to have a good education," Tara said sadly.

"Where's your mom at now?" Faith enquired having not seen another woman around the place.

"She passed away awhile back. It's just been my dad, Donny and I since then." Tara said as she shuffled her feet uncomfortably.

"Oh man I'm sorry," Faith said with a downcast look on her face. "My mom passed a few years ago."

Silence fell upon them for a couple of minutes as neither woman wanted to delve into the craziness that was their lives. "I-I-I should go get dinner started." Tara said and gave Faith a glance to make certain she would be all right.

- - - - - - - -

Later that night, Faith awoke to find that a scruffy looking man was standing over her; he was the younger of the two men who abused Tara. She thought she remembered Tara calling him Donny. "Daddy's brought home a fine young woman," Donny said smelling of booze.

Faith liked to drink once in awhile but when the booze smell seemed to be a permanent fixture on a person, it reminded her of her childhood and she loathed it. "I wonder just how good in the hay you'll be." He leaned in for a kiss but Faith was having none of it.

Though she was weak, her slayer strength could easily stop a drunk, this much she knew. As he leaned down, Faith quickly ran through what would happen if she lashed out now. She then decided she didn't care as what he said next chilled her to the bone. "Daddy decided tonight's the night he will initiate Tara, so I get you." He laughed roughly, as he spoke and patted the bulge in his pants. "You gonna get you some of this girl."

"Fuck off," Faith said as her hand shot up and grabbed hold of his neck. She then tossed him to the other side of the barn with ease.

"Bitch you will pay for that!" Donny hissed as he got up and kicked Faith in her stomach with his steel-toed boot.

Pain shot through her body, she knew the wound was probably reopened, as she was certain the slayer healing hadn't had ample time to heal it fully. "Asshole!" She shouted and got to her feet on pure adrenaline. Nobody messed with Faith like that and got away with it. "You're fucking with the wrong woman boy!" She grabbed his wrist as he swung at her.

She could barely stand on her legs due to the sharp pain that coursed through her body. "You're not gonna hurt me or Blondie." Faith said then snapped his wrist with ease. He jumped back from her and yelled in pain. "

"I'll do whatever I want to my sister!" Donny spat as he struggled to get up but Faith kicked him hard in the ribs. She was satisfied with the sound of his ribs cracking, as he yelled out in pain again. "I'll make a straight woman out of her," he grunted as she kicked him again.

Faith stumbled to the shelf where tools were kept. She shook her head in an effort to stay focused, as the pain grew worse. She lifted a hunting knife and walked back to Donny. "You will never hurt a woman like that again," she jerked his pants down and took his manly tool in her hand. In spite of the fear he had of the woman who knelt before him with a knife, he moaned in pleasure then screamed as it was sliced off. "Name's Faith, you tell how this happened and your father will die! Do you hear me boy!" Faith said then backhanded him hard several times and laughed as she cut the organ in several pieces. "I've been told I'm a psycho-bitch, I guess you met your psycho match huh little boy!" Faith said and kicked him again. She felt the rage inside her about to come to a snapping point and it felt good, Faith was back.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tara was lying in her bed trembling as her father smacked her again. He had her clothes off and she feared what would happen next. A cousin of hers had warned her that her father had molested her a couple years ago and now Tara was certain it was her turn. She was bleeding from the nose and mouth from his assault and now wanted to die.

She heard someone shuffling slowly up the stairs and feared it was Donny but then thought he was probably in the barn getting it on with that girl she had helped. Suddenly her father fell to the floor and there, leaning on the bedpost for support, stood the dark-eyed girl she had helped the night before. "Blondie," she said in a choked out voice. "It's all right," she moved up to the head of the bed to look Tara over then almost fell due to her weakness. "I think we need to get out of here though."

"M-M-M-My grandma has a horse farm about twenty miles from here but I don't know how we can get there." Tara said with fear in her voice of what would happen to them when her father awoke.

"Get dressed and give me a hand out to that truck." Faith said as she sat down on the bed. She lifted her shirt that Tara had given her and didn't see much blood. That was a good sign but the pain was almost unbearable. "I'll drive and you tell me how to get there."

- - - - - - -

Hattie Olin was a short plump woman with blondish brown hair. She was heartbroken when her daughter, Diana, passed away both for the loss of her daughter and the knowing she would probably never see her Tara again. Tara was special Hattie knew and tried so hard to urge Diana to get her away from Thomas before he killed them both. Diana was a weak-minded person though and couldn't seem to pull herself out from under Thomas's iron hand.

Diana's fear was that Thomas's lies would win custody of Tara and she'd never see her daughter again if he got her in his clutches. That, coupled with the fact that she had endured so much mental and physical abuse from the man that she convinced herself the lies he told about the Maclay women were true. Therefore, Diana chose to stay and protect her daughter as best she could. She had planned to teach Tara all that was good about the craft so she could maybe keep the demon half of her under control and get away from Thomas.

Hattie didn't ask the two young women any questions when they arrived late that night, as they looked worn out. Tara especially looked emotionally tanked so she hoped she might get some answers once the girls had rested up.

As she was preparing breakfast, the dark haired slayer made her way in the kitchen. "Hello dear," Hattie said as she got a chair for the weakened slayer.

"Hey," Faith answered having never been one to try to impress anyone with a more proper way of speaking.

"Are you Tara's friend?" Hattie questioned not quite knowing how to approach this young woman who was brimming with some sort of powerful energy. Hattie had a great deal of knowledge of the craft but didn't want to use her aura reading skills on Faith. She never did such things unless it was important and, at this moment, it didn't seem a necessity so she chose to let Faith keep her privacy.

"Her dad picked me up," Faith said accepting the coffee offered her by Hattie. "I got hurt pretty bad," she pulled up her shirt and showed Hattie the wound. "Blondie fixed me up real nice though and then her dad turned out to be not such a good guy so I helped her get away." Faith finished speaking having left out the bloodier details concerning Donny. He after all was her grandson.

"You don't know how grateful I am that you happened to be there. Tara is a very precious soul," Hattie said and gave Faith a small smile much like Tara's smile.

That statement made Faith feel good inside; nobody had ever showed any gratitude for something she had done. She shook her head and began to fight with her inner-demons. She didn't want to feel nice, she wanted revenge and to do whatever she had to do to get it. Buffy and company would pay dearly for the treatment they gave her. She had to stay strong and not allow these nice people to soften her up. 'You can do it Faith, you've done it all your life and there is no sense stopping now.'

Just then, Tara came in the kitchen. She had showered and slept well once they arrived at her grandmother's house. She looked better than Faith had seen her since they met and this pleased Faith. "I wasn't sure if you would stay." Tara said honestly, as she smiled at the slayer. She wanted to properly thank the girl for saving her last night as well as get to know her. 'Not that Faith would want to get to know you Tara. You're just a plain girl, not tall and slender, not short and anorexic looking, just Tara.'

Everything within Faith screamed at her to bail out now while the bailing was good but she couldn't, not yet at least. She kept telling herself that in a week or so she would be ready to fight Buffy and that is when she would bail. There was no need in leaving before she was ready for the fight and there were a few things she wanted to find out before leaving the girl. "Yeah I'm here," was all Faith could think of to say after her little mental diversion of what she wanted to do.

"Do you have any family?" Hattie asked casually.

Here was Faith's chance. She knew they couldn't be more than an hour from Sunnydale due to the distance Thomas had driven the other night during her battle to stay awake and the length of time it took them to get to this farm last night. "Yeah, well, my mom passed but I have family in Sunnydale."

Faith saw the look of surprise on Hattie's face right away. This told her something had gone down in Sunnydale but she wasn't sure as to what she should say to Faith. As the woman pondered what to tell Faith, if anything, the phone rang. After speaking for a minute, she hung up and looked at Tara. "Tara, did you see your brother before leaving the house last night?"

"N-N-No," Tara said as Faith kept her poker face on. She wasn't about to tell the woman what she did to Donny and wasn't so sure she should tell Tara either.

"That was Beth on the phone, Hattie began surveying the girls for a reaction. "She says Donny has been in the hospital all night and is ok now but someone chopped off his penis."

Tara's face showed Hattie utter shock but Faith's showed no emotion whatsoever. She began to wonder just who this girl was and what her deal was, as the timer beeped telling her the biscuits were done.