Disclaimer: Faith does not belong to me...Get your minds out of the gutter people! My intentions were completely honorable...I think;)

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Chapter 4

"Fucking look at me!"

Elspeth's last words hung in the air. She slapped the rails of her wheelchair in frustration as a tremble of rage went through her. She swallowed, struggling for the words. Her fingers flexed in and out, nails digging into the padding of her chair. "I...I used to wake up every morning hoping it was a nightmare. That I'd be able to jump out of bed and go...just go walk down to the gas station or something. I'd have these dreams that the doctors would come up with this radical new procedure...or...or my fucking fairy-godmother would come and wave her magic wand and poof! I'd be able to walk and all the pain a...and pure stupidity of it would just go away."

"When I was a kid...," she laughed, her voice cracking, "When I was a kid I'd make up these stories about where I'd go and what I'd do when I could finally walk. But as the years kept coming...I stopped writing. I'm no slayer or hero or whatever, Faith, don't come here and try to tell me I am."

Elspeth turned her chair and rolled back inside her house, Rift following after. The crippled slayer didn't even note the sound of the door clicking shut as the dog pushed it closed behind her.

"Well," Faith, left alone in the backyard, rasped and casually tilted her head to the side and scratched behind her ear, "All and all that could have gone a shit load worse."

Thedark-haired slayer shrugged and walked up to the porch. Giving a leap, she grabbed hold of the edge of the roof and pulled herself up and over. Truthfully, she wasn't all that disappointed with Elspeth's reaction. Girl's had a lot of shit dumped on her, Faith sighed and rolled over on her back, pulling out her Blackberry. I shouldn't be surprised she freaked a little. Still, she didn't start screaming hysterically and calling in the National Guard, so I'd say it's a step in the right direction.

Selecting Bejeweled for tonight's entertainment, the slayer settled in for another night of endless entertainment. Tomorrow was Saturday; I'll drop in in the morning and greet our resident lucky girl. I'm sure that will provide loads of fun. Grinning wickedly, Faith flipped a red jewel over into line and listened to the mechanical tinkle as the line disappeared and more fell into place. She was, oddly enough, looking forward toward the morning.

…..............

Elspeth mechanically went through the process of loading her chair on the lift and rode up the stairs in a daze, not even the irritating whine of the lift engine getting through to her. When she reached the top, she popped the straps off absentmindedly and rolled down the hall to her room. Once inside she went immediately over to the large dresser on the left side of the room and opened the top, center drawer. Ignoring Rift's pitiful whining, Elspeth stared down at the small box in the bottom of the drawer.

I guess I shouldn't use it tonight, she thought almost absently to herself. The urge was strong tonight, almost overwhelming, but she couldn't. Faith didn't strike her as the type to give up so easily. She might still be hanging around. There's always the possibility I might get caught before I finished. No, she decided a little sadly, pushing the drawer closed, not tonight.

….........

"Morning, Lucky Girl," Elspeth glared up at Faith's smiling face. The 8 a.m. light causing the natural highlights in Faith's hair to shine. Like I need a-perfect-shining-example-of-what-I'm-not staring at me first thing in the morning.

"I asked you to leave." Elspeth tried to slam the door again, sighing as Faith stopped it as easily as she had the day before.

"Ain't that easy, Lucky Girl," Faith practically sneered and kicked the door open gently or what passed for gently in Faith's mind. Sauntering past Elspeth and giving Rift a pat on the head, the dark-haired slayer strolled toward the kitchen. "C'mon, I brought coffee and donuts. We've got a few more things to discuss."

"I thought I told you last night that I wanted to be left alone." Elspeth found herself chasing the aggravating woman into her own home. Why won't she take no for an answer, the professor fumed, and what's with that annoying nickname?!

"You did," Faith smirked, "I just don't care. There's things about this you don't know yet, Lucky Girl. Trust me, if I could blow out of here, I would. Places to go, things to kill...."

"Then why don't you?" Elspeth huffed.

Faith eyed the crippled slayer as she jumped up onto the woman's counter and seated herself comfortably. She looks a little better this morning, Faith decided, angry is always better than resigned. The slayer sighed inside, if it came to the truth she really did want to leave this woman alone. Being Chosen was hard enough by itself, with the added complication of Elspeth's disability it might just destroy someone.

….....

"Lady, you're fucking crazy!" A sixteen year old Faith Lehane told Diana Dormer. The lady had just shown up today and yanked Faith out of her mother's home, waving official papers. Not taking no for an answer.

Faith had tried to run, her mom really sucked as a mom, but she was all the family Faith had. She hadn't even made it out of the car before the lady had sped off, the wheels of her ugly sedan actually making black marks on the pavement. Now she was sitting across from Faith telling her something about vampires and how Faith might be chosen in the future to fight evil. The woman was obviously off her rocker.

"I assure you, Faith," Diana Dormer told her with a sort of posh accent that Faith had only ever heard on TV., "I am quite serious. I do not make jokes about such things."

"Yeah," Faith smirked, "You don't strike me as joking about much at all."

….......

And hadn't that been a bitch of a time, Faith smirked a little at the memory. She'd had Diana running around like a crazy person for the three months before she'd been Chosen. She hadn't really believed what Diana had said about being a slayer. Oh, she'd gone through the motions and even staked a few vampires, free meals and all, but she'd never once thought she'd be Chosen. She still wasn't quite sure why she had been.

"I'm not leaving 'cause I still got things to say," Faith told Elspeth harshly, pushing aside her pity. As much as she might feel sorry for the other woman, Elspeth didn't need sympathy right now. "And you're gonna listen, 'cause if you don't, it's likely you'll be dead as soon as I skip out of this town, Lucky Girl."

"Eh?" Elspeth was caught back. This whole morning wasn't going anything like it was supposed to. It's my Saturday, why am I here being pushed around by some woman in tight clad...Oh, my God Elspeth, get those thoughts out of your head right now!

"See, I don't know exactly why you've been activated now," Faith's voice snapped her back from her self-castigation. "I'm sure the egg-heads back home will come up with at least a hundred theories, but that doesn't matter. The main problem we have right now is that once a slayer's gone active, she starts draggin' in every badie within a ten mile radius."

"Oh God," Elspeth said once the words finally sunk in, "You mean...?"

"You just became the number one appetizer in town, Lucky Girl, and as you are now...," Faith trailed off, allowing the other woman to fill in the implications herself.

"I'm helpless," Elspeth gave a bleak smile as a sense of inevitability filled her. It was almost calming really. She really had no idea what to say next and all that seemed to fill her head was the horrible line, Well, guess that gives new meaning to the phrase, 'Meals on Wheels', doesn't it?

Author's Note:

I am going to use the birth date for Faith that is given in the Angel Files and also the novel Go Ask Malice. I realize that it's un-canon, but it really is the firmest date that I could find out there. I also realize this goes against popular opinion that Faith was younger than Buffy, it actually put her at one month older, but after thinking about it I worked it into the story anyway. The time-line basically goes that Faith was picked up by her Watcher near the end of her sixteenth year and was with her for about three months before she was Chosen. I'm sure there might be something wrong with my time-line somewhere but I still usually count on my fingers here people, a math genius I am not.

Also, I am using the name Diana Dormer, also taken from Go Ask Malice, but any other similarities to the book are complete coincidence. Mainly because I haven't actually read the book yet. I didn't find out about it 'till after I moved and it's really hard to find any book in English over here unless it's Harry Potter or Twilight!

The novel Go Ask Malice, is presented as Faith's diary taking place at the same time as Buffy Season 2. It has her 17th birthday on December 14th 1997 (meaning she's born December 14th 1980). Meaning according to this (uncanon) source she is about one month older than Buffy. -- Paxomen 15:02, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

In mid-1998, Diana Dormer's diary refers to "...the occasion of the Cruciamentum approaching." Since the Cruciamentum is on a Slayer's 18th birthday, it implies Faith was 17 at the time, confirming the birth year of 1980.

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