Chapter 4

On the drive to Martin's apartment, there was silence until he finally got the nerve to ask. "That was a vampire wasn't it?"

Faith was shocked. "What do you mean?"

"Faith, I know about vampires, and I know that you're a slayer."

"What?! How do you know?"

Martin sighed, now or never. "It was part of the reason your mother and I split up. You were three years old when this British guy came to the house and told me and Linda that you were a potential slayer. I didn't believe him but Linda did. She'd been a watcher see, and she'd known since you were 6 months old that you were a potential. When I refused to believe it and allow you to be taught to fight, Linda and the council took you away from me. I fought long and hard Faith, to keep you with me but I lost. Linda took you to Boston. I'm so sorry Faith."

"Wait, what are you sorry for? Sounds like it wasn't you're fault."

"I'm sorry for not trying sooner to get you away from your mother, I wanted to but the Watcher's council threatened to kill you if I tried. Linda was there when they told me that and the look in her eyes told me they weren't kidding. I wasn't allowed anywhere near you, so I turned my focus to building up the kind of money and power I'd need to fight a group like the Council. But by that time, you'd left Boston. I didn't find you until after you were in a coma. I was still afraid the council would try to kill you so I kept my distance. Then, when I heard it had been destroyed and that you were back in Sunnydale, I started to build up the courage to contact you. By the time I did, you were in LA, how did you escape that huge earthquake that hit Sunnydale?"

It was a lot for Faith to take in but she managed to so far. She noticed they were on Martin's street. "Which one is it?" Martin pointed to a big one on the left.

Martin actually lived in a mansion in Westchester but he also kept an apartment in Manhattan. That was where they'd driven. Faith pulled into the underground garage and into the spot Martin indicated, not that he needed to tell her since his name was painted in big bold letters over six parking spots. Three spots were already taken so Faith pulled into the fourth and turned the car off. Their conversation was paused by silent mutual agreement as Martin led her to the elevator. They got in and he took out a key and put it in the lock next to the PH button and turned then pressed the PH button.

As the elevator went up, it stopped once to pick up a passenger in the building's lobby and then once more on the 15th floor to let the man off. Then it was a smooth trip to the top floor. Faith was silently trying to not only process what he'd told her in the car but also what he'd just done. Obviously, only someone with the key could get to the top floor, how'd that work when a friend visited?

The elevator doors opened and Martin let Faith step out first. She stepped out expecting to see a nice hallway but nope, she'd walked into what looked like another room. It was nice, sky blue carpeting, with a slightly darker blue on the walls and tastefully placed light sconces on the walls giving off a welcoming glow. Faith heard the elevator closing and turned to see that Martin was standing there watching her reaction.

"This is very nice, this is you're place?"

"Yes it is. Well, one of them anyway. I own this building Faith, this top floor apartment is my treat to myself. Come, I'll give you the tour if you'd like."

"Sure, lead the way Martin." Faith was putting off their conversation as much as she could, so she could finish processing everything.

Martin understood and gave her the tour. First, the living room, which also had the same sky blue carpet and blue walls, the dining room whose color scheme was sandy brown, each of the five bedrooms with their own unique color scheme and several nice views of the city. The three bathrooms all a paler blue than the carpet in the living room, the kitchen, whose theme was stainless steel, it looked like a restaurant's kitchen. Finally, there was the game room, named not because there was dead animals or anything but because it housed every game imaginable. Playstation (1 & 2), Xbox, Gamecube, N64, and even the NES and Sega Genesis, each with its own 35inch TV. Another TV hooked up to a DVD/VHS and a huge stereo. There was a pool table at one end, a dart board on the wall, a small wet bar in one corner and an arcade style basketball game in another corner. Faith noticed a shelf on the far wall and it had board games stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Faith stood in awe in the doorway of the room, almost as if she wasn't worthy to enter.

"Wow, this is...wow." Was all Faith could say.

Martin smiled, "Glad you like it, I created this room for you Faith. I wasn't sure what you'd like so I just got everything, there's still some stuff on backorder though. That'll get here within the next two weeks I'm sure. Hopefully, you'll still be around then, I'd like it if you were."

"I think I'd like that too, but you shouldn't have gone to all this trouble for me." Faith suddenly flashed back to the Mayor and that apartment he'd gotten her, everything she'd ever wanted, and she didn't like the comparisons so she pushed those thoughts away and focused on the moment.

"Nonsense, you're my daughter Faith, and I've missed almost your entire life. I wanna make up for that, or at least try to, if you'll let me." Martin paused to let that sink in. "Shall we go into the living room? Finish our talk?"

"Sure."

They went back into the living room but when they got there Martin remembered that he hadn't eaten yet. "Are you hungry Faith?"

Faith just noticed she was starving, she'd managed to control the after effects of slaying on the drive over by focusing on what he'd told her but now, at the mention of eating, the hunger was back at full force.

"Starving actually, slaying always makes me hungry." Faith felt it would be best to leave out the horny part, that she could control until she got to a cold shower...or a hot body.

"Really? Hmmm...interesting side effect but it makes sense. Fighting, all that exercise I guess you gotta replace what you're working off right? Ok, let's go in the kitchen and see what I can whip up ok?"

Faith couldn't help the look of disbelief that popped up in her face just like she couldn't help her next words, "You can cook?"

"Single man, on his own had better learn to cook or risk either starving or going broke from take out. Seriously though, before you were born I took a course in culinary arts. Back when I thought I wanted to be a chef, grew out of that phase but still remembered how to cook. It was actually how I won your mother's heart."

"Yeah? Can you tell me about that? About how she was before I was born."

"If you'd like. Let's see," While he began to tell her, he took out ingredients for the meal. Faith tried to mentally guess what he was making but gave up as soon as he began talking about her mother.

"Linda, she was...difficult I guess would be the best term. She didn't want anything to do with me at first. See, my best friend, Roger, was dating her sister and they both thought we'd be good together. So they played matchmaker, but Linda didn't share their opinion. She thought I was...beneath her I think was the term she used. See, Linda had been sent to a boarding school in England since she was 10 years old. Her sister lucked out and managed to stay in the states and attend private school. It was while she was in England that she was recruited by the Watcher's Council. But anyway, her experience with the other girls at that school, rich little brats who thought no one less than a Duke was good enough, shaped Linda's outlook. When she graduated from Oxford she returned home and that was when her sister, Kate, started trying to convince her to give me a shot. But Linda kept refusing."

"Why didn't you just give up and move on?"

"Good question, I guess because from the first moment I saw her I was hooked. There was no one else for me." As he spoke he prepared dinner. Expertly chopping, slicing, and dicing. He had two pots on the stove by now and a pan where he was sauteing onions, garlic and oregano in olive oil. "Can you pass me that spoon there Faith?"

Faith handed him the spoon and waited for him to continue. "So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so Linda wouldn't have me and I only wanted her, so I cooked up the perfect plan, pun intended there, and I decided to throw a small dinner party. Just the four of us really, Kate, Roger, Linda and me. I cooked the whole meal, appetizer to dessert, took me all day but it was worth it. They arrived just as I was placing the chocolate souffle into the oven. We ate in relative silence so the souffle wouldn't fall. Needless to say that by the time the souffle was gone, Linda was impressed. She agreed to give me a chance. Said any man that would go to all that trouble to get her attention deserved a shot."

"Wow, so I take it you made the most of your chance huh?"

"Yes I did, I dipped into my trust fund, which Linda never knew I had, and courted her in a way that would make even a Prince look poor by comparison. Three months later we were married."

"Were you...happy? The both of you I mean, happy in the marriage?"

"I always thought we were, things seemed near perfect. We worked, went out on weekends, trips during the summer, it was what I'd always wanted. And then we got really blessed and Linda told me she was pregnant. I was thrilled. I think I might've gotten on her nerves a bit though."

"Why?"

"I--I became very overprotective of her when she was pregnant with you. Coddled her really, never let her do anything too strenuous, always made sure she rested. Then I committed the ultimate sin and cut off her coffee supply."

"Mom liked coffee?" This was a shock; every time she'd tried to sober her mother up with coffee she'd slap the cup away then slap her for good measure.

"She loved it, drank like 10 cups a day. You seem surprised, why?"

"Well, when I was growing up, mom would get drunk and when I tried to give her coffee to sober her up, she'd slap the cup away." Faith thought it best to leave out the getting slapped part.

"Hmmm...guess maybe it reminded her of earlier times. Anyway, she really got mad at me for not letting her have her coffee but the doctor insisted on no caffeine, which meant no soda either. Just juice, water and milk, boy was she mad. Kept saying she'd get me for that, but there was always a spark in her eyes that told me she was just kidding. After you were born, nothing could pry you from my arms unless it was feeding time or time for me to go to work. You were my little girl, and you knew it. I think that might've also been a factor in Linda's decision to leave. She knew that she couldn't compete in the favorite parent department so she did the next best thing and took you away from me."

By this time, dinner was done and Martin decided they'd eat in the kitchen at the little breakfast table. He told Faith where the plates were and she got two down for them. Martin served up two big plates of angel hair pasta with a homemade red wine sauce. Once the plates were on the table he turned back to the oven and pulled out the loaf of garlic bread and cut it up into pieces and put it into a basket and put it on the table too. Then got out a bottle of Chardonnay, "Faith, do you drink wine or would you prefer something else?"

"Take a beer if you got it, or juice if not. Not a big wine gal."

"Beer it is then." Martin put the wine back and got two long neck bottles of Corona out of the fridge along with a lime which he sliced up into quarters and put in a small dish. Once everything was on the table he pulled out Faith's chair and she sat down, then he sat.

Faith smiled as she realized that this was what she'd always wanted, dinner with family. With a parent who cared and took the time to show it by cooking a meal...something Buffy had always taken for granted when Joyce was still alive.

Martin noticed Faith hadn't eaten yet, "Faith? You ok? It is safe to eat you know... not like I'm gonna try to poison you or anything."

Faith smiled. "I know, just...was thinking about something." Faith began eating and noticed it was really, really good.

"Mind if I ask what you were thinking about?"

"Just...remembering all those times in Boston, when I'd be watching TV and see families having dinner together and wishing I could be there with them ya know?"

"I think I understand. Well, if you decide to stay we can have dinner like this every night. I'd be more than happy to cook dinner every night."

"Stay?"

"Oops, guess I'm kinda jumping the gun aren't I? But I won't lie to you Faith, I would love nothing more than to have you move in here and live with me. I want us to be a family again but I understand that you might be...wary of that. I understand if there are...trust issues when it comes to men but I want you to know that you can trust me Faith."

"Last person who said that to me ended up sticking a knife in my gut, so you'll forgive me if it brings back bad memories."

Martin visibly paled. He'd known about the whole knife thing but he hadn't known that Faith had thought she could trust the person who did it. "Buffy Summers wasn't it?" Martin asked...trying to sound casual but knowing he'd failed.

Faith heard the tremor of anger underneath the trying-so-hard-to-be-casual tone in her father's voice. Faith had accepted he was indeed her father, but how did he know about Buffy?

"Yeah...how'd you know her name?"

"Ever since I tracked you to Sunnydale, I kept a close eye on you. Well, I hired a private investigator to keep an eye on you. He had strict orders not to interfere just to observe. And report back every week. I know almost everything, well the facts anyway. The motives, emotions and stuff I don't know. In fact, when I heard that she'd almost killed you I almost hired someone to kill her. But I stopped myself in time. Because you were still alive, in a coma yes, but still alive. I was in the middle of making arrangements to have you moved to a hospital here when you woke up. And then you ended up in jail. There wasn't much I could do about that but I did what I could. It took a few years but , again, I was in the middle of getting you an early parole into my custody here when you broke out and went back to Sunnydale. My investigator told me what was happening there, well, as much as he could seeing as how he didn't know about the vampires and stuff. Maybe someday, you could tell me what really happened there? But until then I can wait. So then you left there and ended up back in LA. I was afraid you'd try to return to jail so I pulled some strings and got your record expunged. That was when I finally got the courage to send you that letter."

"I see...wow. You went to all that trouble just to find me? Why?"

"You're my daughter Faith. I love you, I've loved you since you were born and I finally had the means to contact you."

"But why was that so important? I mean, you could've turned around and just said 'fuck it' and lived your life. I never would've known differently."

"That's partly why I did it Faith. You never would've known differently than you've known your whole life. And I wanted you to know that there was someone, me, who you could turn to, trust and who loved you unconditionally. I wanted you to know that you are not alone Faith. Even though, considering you probably made friends this time in Sunnydale, you probably already knew that, I wanted to make sure you knew it. I also wanted to meet you Faith, to have you meet me."

"Oh, makes sense I guess. And yeah I did make some friends and also made peace with old rivals but, until tonight I still felt alone. I've been on my own since I was 16, and I got used to it, accepted it as the way things were. Now you tell me that I am not alone anymore, it's gonna take some getting used to ok?"

"Of course, old habits die hard, I know this. Take all the time you need Faith, and in the meantime if you like you can stay here. You'd have full run of the place during the day when I'm at work and when I get home we can have dinner together and anything else you'd like."

"I get the feeling that if I let you, you'd spoil me rotten."

"Yes, I probably would. I missed out on 18 years of your life Faith, that's a lot to make up for. But I would at least try to hold myself back...a bit." Martin smiled.

Faith smiled back, thinking she could probably get used to having a loving parent in her life. Someone she could count on and talk to, someone who knew she was a slayer who needed to patrol, speaking of which. "I do have something to ask you Martin."

"Faith, you can ask me anything, and I hope that one day you'll be comfortable enough to call me dad but I can wait for that too. So what'd you wanna ask me?"

"Well, you know that I'm a slayer and that means that I hafta be out there at night killing vampires. If I did move in here, would you be able to let me do that? Go out on patrols like a slayer should?"

"I said before I won't lie so here goes. I'm not going to pretend that I like the thought of you fighting vampires and risking your life, but I do understand that it's a part of who you are and that you can't change that so yes I would let you go out and patrol. But, I'd be waiting up for you every night to make sure you got back safely."

"Liking the honesty, and I guess I can put up with having you wait up for me as long as you don't try to run my life or tell me what to do, deal? I'll move in here if you can agree to that."

Martin thought about that for a minute. He knew he could agree to her terms but he also knew it would be tough to hold back. But he would try, for a second chance to be the father she deserved, he would try his very best. "Deal, it won't be easy but I'll make every effort to refrain from telling you what to do. Fair enough?"

"Yeah." By this time Faith had eaten not only her plate of pasta but most of the garlic bread and two beers. Sleep had begun to set in a bit. "I'm getting tired though, long flight and then that slay. Mind if I crash here?"

"Of course not, go pick out a room. A word of advice though, the red and blue room has a closet full of clothes in your size. Not saying you have to pick that room but when you do pick your room, you can move the clothes over ok?"

"Ok, sounds good. Well, goodnight...dad." Faith took a risk and then went over and gave him a kiss on the cheek then walked out, hearing him say a surprised goodnight. Faith smiled, knowing it wouldn't be long before this apartment felt like home. Faith walked through each of the four available bedrooms, knowing which one was her father's. She tried to get a feel for each room but when she walked into the red and blue room, she got the feeling of being home. She walked around the room, certain that the feeling was just because she knew the closet held her clothes but, no, the more time she spent in the room the bigger the feeling got of being home. Faith sat down on the bed, trying to figure it out when Martin appeared in the doorway.

"I take it you picked this one?"

"More like it picked me but, yeah. Is that ok?"

"Very ok, I had a feeling you'd pick this one. Feels like home doesn't it?"

"Yeah it does...how'd you know?"

"This room is an exact copy of your bedroom when you were three, well except for the bed it was much smaller back then. You never seemed the type for Barbie sheets or anything like that, but when you got older I was going to let you redecorate anyway you wanted. But...that never happened. So when I decorated this apartment I told the decorator that this room had to be exactly like this. I guess a part of you still remembers the room."

"Guess so, thanks. I love it."

"I'm glad. Of course, if there's anything you wish to change you are more than welcome to. I want you to feel that this is your home Faith. Maybe this weekend, if you want, we can go up to the house in Westchester."

"You have another house? Why?"

"Sometimes I like to leave the City for the weekend to relax. Trust me, you'll probably never wanna leave it but the City holds morenight crawlers. Anyway, good night Faith. I'm going to be up for a little while longer in my office returning some calls. See you in the morning?"

"Sure thing, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Martin closed the door and left. Faith looked around and decided to just get changed for bed but then realized she needed a shower. Thankfully, this bedroom shared a bathroom with another one so she didn't have far to go. After making sure the two doors to the bathroom were locked she stripped and took a shower.

Half an hour later, Faith crawled into the full sized canopy bed and fell asleep.

XXXXXXXXXX

Martin sat in his home office, which was connected to his bedroom, and smiled. His daughter was finally home. He finally had his second chance to be a father and he wasn't going to blow it. The phone on his desk rang and he picked it up quickly, not wanting to wake up Faith.

"Hello?"

"Martin, it's Casey."

"Hi Casey, what can I do for you?"

"Just wanted to talk to someone. Tough case at work which I lost and then had to listen to a tirade from the detectives on the case about how I'd messed up and let a rapist back on the streets."

"I'm sorry Casey, I know how hard it is to lose a case. I do have something that could possibly cheer you up though."

"I hope so, I could use some good news. What is it?"

"My daughter Faith is here."

"Faith?! Oh my god why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Sorry, was kinda busy earning her trust. She's a challenge but I think she's coming around. I got her to agree to move in here so that's a good start."

"Is she around? Can I say hello?"

"Sorry Casey, she's sleeping. Plus, I haven't told her yet that she has a cousin. She sorta knows about your mom and her connection to her mom but...we didn't get around to kids."

"There's more to this than you're saying, what's up?"

Martin sighed. "Apparently, I was right about Linda turning to alcohol, Faith let it slip that she was often drunk. Faith doesn't have a high opinion of her mother I think. Not sure how she'd react to a cousin on her mother's side ya know? I don't mean to hurt you, just saying."

"I understand Martin. My mother never really spoke of her sister after she left you. I only knew she was married to you because my dad insisted on telling me before I met you. Still, I would like to meet her...she's family."

"I know Casey, um...tell you what. I'll tell her tomorrow morning and if she's ok with it maybe we can all have lunch tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, yeah I'm free tomorrow. Around 1 o'clock?"

"Sounds good, I'll call your cell when I can confirm Faith's presence ok?"

"Ok, but even if she says no, can we still have lunch?"

"Yes of course. See you tomorrow Casey."

"Thanks Martin, see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Casey."

Martin hung up and sat there smiling. After a few minutes, he got up and, after making sure the apartment was secure for the night, went to bed.