A/N: Wow. It's only been a couple of weeks, and this story has shot up to 23 followers, making it my third most followed story. Thank you everybody. I guess I must be onto something, huh? I HOPE you all like the plans I have for this story.
A/N2: I've made an edit to the prologue. Faith is now going to stay with her cousin Jesse and his family, the McNally's. I LOVE the idea of Xander and Faith being cousins for some reason, but, Faith and Jesse as cousins works way better for the story. and no, that isn't a hint at a Faith/Xander pairing. So, I edited the section concerning Faith in the social workers office.
Chapter One Welcomes, Hellmouths, and Harvests Pt 1
Sunnydale
Jesse McNally sighed as he sat with his parents at the Sunnydale bus station. Things had been kinda rough lately. One of his best friends, Willow Rosenberg's, father had been assigned to head up a new branch of the law firm he worked for, and Ira had moved his family to Cleveland, Ohio. This had bummed Jesse out big time, but their other best friend, Xander Harris had been much more affected by the "loss" of Willow. Xander, always quick with a joke or a witty/sarcastic comeback, had been quiet and sullen lately.
Jesse had wanted to hang out with Xander today, possibly try to cheer him up a bit, but, his cousin, Faith, was arriving today and his parents had insisted the greet her as a family, so they'd checked Jesse out of school early and they'd all ridden to the bus station was conflicted. He felt bad for Faith. He'd always known there was something wrong when they had visited she and Aunt Doris, and upon the family discussion about whether or not to take her in, he'd discovered that Aunt Doris had abused Faith, and that Faith had nearly been raped by one of her mothers boyfriends. After that, Jesse could never have voted "no". Faith needed them, and they had played together as children, and, yeah, Jesse loved her, even if it was more in that 'you're family so I love you" way than in a "I love FAITH" sort of way. Unfortunately, Faith was also kind of a tough girl, and had often beaten him up when they were younger, so, he was a little dubious about her living with them. On the other hand, when they were getting along, he and Faith HAD liked a lot of the same things, plus, Faith had spent the summer with them here in Sunnydale when they were 10 and Faith had blended right into his groups of friends, so, hopefully, things wouldn't be TOO bad.
"Jesse," said his Mom, shaking him out of his thoughts. He looked over at her. "They just announced Faith's bus." She smiled at him, that warm loving smile she had. Jesse's parents were great. Warm and loving and attentive. Not perfect by any means, but, he'd always felt sorry for Xander and Willow. Xanders father drank, and could be verbally abusive towards both Xander and his mother, and Willow's parents were always busy and seldom around.
Jesse's Mom gave him a long look as they stood, doing one of her Mom "see right through you" things. "Honey," she asked. "Are you ok with all this? Everything has happened so fast."
Jesse smiled at her, loving her. "I am," he said. "It's just been a long time since we've seen her. Plus, with a girl around, I'm NEVER going to get into the bathroom." They both laughed softly. "But, she needs us. I'd really like to kill that guy!"
"You and me both,"said his Dad. "It doesn't matter how long it's been since we've seen her. Faith is family. And McNally's protect their own."
All three smield and went off to meet the new addition to their family.
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Faith stood and stretched, trying to work out the kinks of a long bus ride. She'd been on that stupid bus for two days, and she was stiff, exhausted. She shambeled after the other passengers, feeling a trifle nervous. Faith was normally a very confident girl, but it had been a long time since she'd seen the McNally's, and she had no real idea if she would be accepted or not. Did they want her or were they just doing their duty? Faith looked a lot like her Mom, would Aunt Meg look at her and see her Mom? Did Jesse have hard feelings because Faith used to beat him up sometimes? Would Uncle Peter resent having another mouth to feed?
Faith scratched her left shoulder as she exited the bus. Damn! It's been itching like crazy the last couple of days! she thought. She had no idea what was wrong with it. In truth, the last couple of days were a blur what with getting ready for the move and all. She'd snuck out on the night she'd found out she was going to Sunnydale, and must have really tied one on, because she couldn't remember a thing from that evening, and was still a little hung over, as she was right now very sound sensitive and a lot of louder sounds were really hurting her ears, though it was getting better. She looked around and quickly found the McNally's. Aunt Meg looked a lot like her mother, but in a more down to Earth way. Jesse looked a lot like Uncle Peter who looked just the way Faith remembered him. All three were smiling and waving at her. She gave a tentative smile and wave of her own and walked over to them.
Aunt Meg met her halfway and Faith found herself enfolded in a massive hug. She was stiff at first, not really used to being hugged, except maybe by soem creep trying to cop a feel. But, there was something about the hug, the warmth that Aunt Meg just seemed to exhude, that Faith found herself wrapping her arms around her and hugging back, tightly, resting her head on Aunt Megs shoulder.
Meg seemed to feel that Faith needed this hug and held on a bit longer. "Hi Faith," she whispered. "God, it's good to see you. You're more beautiful than your mother ever was."
Faith stiffened a little at the mention of her mother, but smiled. "It's good to see you too," she whispered back. The two finally disengaged as Peter and Jesse came up to them.
Peter hugged her too, a touch awkwardly. Then Jesse walked up. "Hey, Faith," he said, giving her a tentative smile.
Faith smiled back. "Hey," she said. They didn't seem to have a lot to say to each other.
"Well," said Peter. "I'm sure you're tired from your trip. Let's get your bags and get you home." Faith nodded and they all walked over to wherethe baggage was being unloaded.
"That's them," said Faith, indicating two duffle bags. She reached for one, but Uncle Peter stepped in ad grabbed it, then she turned to see Jesse had the other. "Such gentlemen," she said.
"I just don't want to get beat up," Jesse muttered under his breath, but, he had a grin that looked rather mischievous to Faith. She laughed.
"Well, try not to tick me off like you used to," she said giving him a playful shove.
"This is everything?" Meg interrupted. "Do we need to send for the rest?"
Faith got embarrassed. "Nah, this is everything," she said. "Ma had other worries besides buying me clothes. Food. Rent. Booze." They all gaped and she looked at the floor. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."
Meg put her arm around Faith and led her to the car, the men folk following. "Nonsense," said Meg. "Faith, Doris is my sister, and I love her, but i know what she's like. You have plenty of reason to be angry with her. Never be afraid to express your feelings around out house."
"Just be sure to be respectful about it," added Uncle Peter, but when Faith looked back, he gave her a wink. Somehow she sensed, he meant his words, but not in a mean way. She found herself oddly comforted by them, however. She nodded at him and scratched her shoulder again as they found the car and all got in.
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The McNally house was not far from the bus station, Sunnydale not being that big of a town, and they made it home quickly. They all piled out of the car and gave Faith the tour. It was a nice, two story house, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one off the master bedroom. The last stop was Faith's room. She raised an eyebrow as she looked at the decor.
Meg chuckled. "This was our guest room," she told Faith. "But it's all yours. You can decorate however you like, within reason of course." She watched as Peter and Jesse sat Faith's bags down on the bed. "You'll be starting school with Jesse on Monday. I already have you enrolled. tomorrow, you and i will have a girls day. We'll go shopping and get you some more clothes, and maybe a few things for your room."
Faith gaped at her. "You don't gotta do that," she said. "You guys are already bein' great, lettin' me stay here and all. I don't want you spending any more money on me than you have to."
Peter stepped up to her and looked at her, sternly but kindly. "Faith," he said. "You're a member of this family. You live here now. You are one of us. We're not just "lettin' you stay here". We WANT you here."
"Dad's right," said Jesse. "Just stay away from my Batman comics!"
Faith scoffed. "Please," she said. "I stopped reading Batman during that stupid Bane storyline."
Jesse's jaw dropped. "That story line was awesome!" He protested.
"Bane sucks," said Faith, a playful look on her face.
Jesse sputtered. "He-he broke the bat!" he protested.
Faith rolled her eyes. "Yeah, AFTER Batman had fought almost every member of his rogue's gallery!" she said. "Even YOU could have broken him at that point!"
Jesse was about to retort when Meg stepped in. "Ok you two, that's enough of that!" Her tone was scolding but both she and Peter were clearly amused. "Faith, honey, do you need anything? I know it was a long bus ride. Are you tired? Hungry? Dinner is in a few hours,but I can fix you a sandwich."
"I'm both, actually," Faith answered. "And I feel like I've been rolling in the dirt for about a year."
"Smells more like rolling in a trash heap," Jesse teased, earning a glare.
"Enough!" said Meg, more seriously this time. She turned back to Faith. "Why don't you take a nice hot shower?" she offered. "I'll bring up a sandwich, then you can nap until dinner."
Faith smiled, feeling comfortable for the first time since she got off that bus. "God, I'd love that," she said.
"Good," said Meg. "You go ahead. There's extra towels in the linen closet in there."
They all left Faith's room, with Jesse hanging back a little. "Faith?" he said.
"Yeah?" she asked.
His next words touched her heart and, once she was alone in the shower, made her cry. Only for once in her life, they were happy tears.
"Welcome home."
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A/N 3: I didn't really want to end this chapter here, I wanted to show some more of other characters, but, as I mention in my profile, my personal life has been crazy lately and it's cutting into my writing time, and since it's been three weeks since I posted the prologue, I wanted to post SOMETHING since this story shot up so fast in followers. So, hope you enjoy what I have, and more to come hopefully soon. Please, review and let me know what you think.
A/N 4: My apologies to any fans of the Batman comics character Bane if they were offended by Faith's opinion of the character. I remember the Knightfall storyline and all the hype about it, and, in the end, I was unimpressed by Bane breaking Batman's back. Here this guy looks so impressive, he is so smart and so strong and such a good fighter, and he had to totally exhaust Batman before beating him? it may be SMaRT strategy, but, it doesn't really impress me, and I figured Faith might feel the same way.
