Part 8 (see disclaimers, summary, etc. in part 1)

There was a knock on the door of Faith and Gunn's hotel room.

"Who is it?" Faith called. She was stronger than Angelus, so she wasn't really afraid of the idea of him showing up at her door, but if he was going to she wanted to be warned.

"It's us," Fred answered. Faith opened the door and nodded, motioning for them to come in.

"I take it you weren't successful at finding the vampires' hideout?" Wesley questioned. Faith and Gunn both shook their heads in return.

"Not a thing," Gunn said. "How 'bout you guys? How'd talking to the rest back home go?"

Fred answered, "Willow said she won't be able to get an Orb of Thessulah for another few days and that our only real option is to just stay out of his way so we don't kill him or get killed before then. They're all researching for an explanation for Buffy's reappearance, and notified the Glotgens that the relic's safe but won't be back in LA right away."

"Okay," Faith nodded. "So, there's nothing left for us to do except… stay here."

"Precisely," Wesley agreed.

Another knock sounded at the door. They all looked at each other and then the door suspiciously. They weren't expecting any other visitors.

"Who is it?" Faith asked again.

"It's me," Angel's voice sounded through the door.

"Ha!" Fred attempted to sound brave and defiant. "Like we're really going to let you in!"

"No, it's me," Angel insisted. "Me with a soul. I'm not evil anymore."

"Do you really expect us to believe that?" Wesley scoffed.

"Was I invited into this room before?" Angel asked.

"What?" Fred asked.

Angel continued, "Neither Faith or Gunn invited me in here before. If you don't invite me, I can't come in. Just open the door so we can talk."

Wesley looked at Faith and Gunn for confirmation; they both nodded. He stepped forward and opened the door to find not only Angel there, but also Buffy holding a small girl.

"Thanks," Angel nodded. He stepped forward into the room.

"Liar!" Fred gasped, wide-eyed. Faith jumped into a fighting stance.

"I was proving my point the only way I knew how," Angel explained as Buffy walked into the room behind him. "We're human now."

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Twenty minutes later, Janey was repeating a question she'd asked not all that long before: "So what now?"

"Well, um… we've got a couple of witch associates back at our headquarters in LA. After we get this whole mess with Darla and her groupies sorted out, we can head back there and I'm pretty sure they'd have a spell that would restore your memory," Faith started, wondering why they hadn't yet explained how they knew Buffy from beforehand and whether she was willing to be the one to do so.

Wesley continued, "So then we can hopefully figure out how exactly you wound up in that alley that day, what exactly Emily's origins are, and-"

"And who I am. Where I came from. Who my family is," Janey stated, a tone of awe in her voice. "My name…"

"Uh, yes," Wesley coughed. He also wasn't sure he was ready to tell her of her connection to Buffy. They didn't even know what that connection was yet, and if it turned out to be less than substantial, it would likely only cause her extra emotional pain to hear it. It was best just to get through their current ordeal and see if she could offer her own explanation once she got her memory back.

"And as far as 'getting this whole mess with Darla and her groupies sorted out'; where do you suppose we start there?" Fred asked.

"I don't know," Angel started. "We can't let them go on as they are, evil vampires roaming the streets. I've let that go on way too long. I'd say our only option is to go surprise attack and kill them all, but I don't know if we have the power to do that right now. You guys didn't have much success against them at the bar, and even though you have us on your side now, I can already tell I don't have the strength I did as a vampire. I still have the training and skills, but it's not enough against Darla."

"I wouldn't want to kill them all anyway," Janey inserted. "I mean, we were just as evil as they were and we've been given the chance to live our lives again. I think they deserve the same chance. I'm willing to accept now that my daughter isn't like the other kids in the playground if it'll save the lives of my two best friends. If she could do it for us, she'll do it for them." She suddenly seemed to process the other part of what he said. "You don't feel as strong as you did as a vampire? How can you tell? I don't feel any different strength-wise."

Angel's first instinct upon hearing that was to feel surprised, but then he realized it really wasn't all that strange. "Were you, uh, unnaturally strong before you became a vampire?"

She looked at her hands thoughtfully for a moment before glancing at the five faces in the room that were looking at her expectantly. "I never… well, I guess I never really thought about it. I mean, I was strong, but…" She stopped and nodded, "Yeah. Yes, I think so. I never really thought to compare it to anything, but I was always breaking things by accident, and… I once got attacked by this guy and my instinctive methods of self-defense landed him in the hospital. People were pretty shocked; he was a big guy."

"Someone attacked you?" Angel gritted out angrily.

"He was drunk. He was a boyfriend of Lisa's; she never had the best taste in men. They'd had a fight that day and for some reason he decided to come see me afterwards."

"For what?"

"What does it matter?" she responded defensively. "We've got more important things to deal with right now."

"Right," Gunn went on. "Like what to do about Darla. How about instead of rushing in to kill them, you rush in with Emily and change them all?"

"We're just going to run in there with a toddler and the battle cry 'I'm going to make you touch the baby!'?" Angel asked skeptically.

"Or," Faith reasoned, "the slightly more subtle 'we decided to share our snack'?"

"I'm not volunteering my kid as a victim. What if something goes wrong?" Janey insisted.

"From what you told us about earlier tonight, she can't be hurt. She's immortal; there's no risk to her well-being," Wesley argued.

"It's a faulty idea, anyway," Angel disagreed. "I mean, clearly Emily has a purpose in the fight against evil; she'll be a great asset when she gets older as far as saving those that can and need to be saved. But then she'll be able to pick and choose. I just don't think… I mean, can you imagine Drusilla becoming human again? With a soul? Her mind would cave in on itself; she'd be locked in a padded room for the rest of her life. It's more merciful just to kill her. And Darla… well, she was human again when Wolfram and Hart first brought her back, and she didn't seem to enjoy that too much either. I have a feeling human Darla's first course of action would be to go find another master vampire to change her back."

"Okay, fine, so we'll kill them and use Emily to change back Mark and Lisa," Janey concluded. She suddenly exhaled and shook her head with a humorless chuckle. "This is ridiculous. A week or so ago, my big life dilemma was how to pay the rent. Now there are vampires, witches, Emily's not human, I'm talking about killing people…"

"You get used to it fast, believe me," Faith said. "Soon enough you'll be arguing without blinking an eye over whether the best way to kill a Hablock demon is to behead it or cut out its second heart."

"It's beheading," Gunn responded automatically.

"The heart," Faith argued back.

Wesley cleared his throat. "About the problem at hand…"

Angel caught Janey's eye, "I know you want to make sure Mark and Lisa will be okay, but if they make it difficult for us to change them… if they attack, we might have no choice."

Janey shook her head firmly, "I don't care what it takes. For more than three years I haven't had anyone in my life but Emily and those two. Mark's been my savior more than once; I owe him the same back. And I won't let Lisa be a monster forever, either."

"If you say so," he responded, knowing she wouldn't be happy if he argued further.

"So, the basic idea is that you guys walk in with the kid, offer her up to Mark and Lisa, and the rest of us will hang outside waiting on the signal for game time?" Faith reasoned.

"That would be the best thing," Wesley stated. "Fred, you should stay here. Call the others, tell them the latest news. Hopefully we won't be long."

She nodded, "Be careful."

"Aren't we always?" Faith winked as they walked out the door.