Chapter Nine

Buffy looked down at the unconscious Angel and was torn between her guilt for his suffering and her hatred for the soulless creature shed helped turn him into. Buffy knew that she couldn't just leave him there though, it wasn't safe. She needed to get him somewhere that had shelter from the direct sunlight that would be arriving in a few hours.

Buffy wondered if it would be safe to tell Faith about this and get her help in moving him. She knew that Willow and Xander had told Faith about Angel (and knowing Xander, none of it was good), and Buffy wondered if she would even agree to help her.

In the end though, Buffy didn't have much of a choice.

Faith came walking around a nearby tree and noticed Buffy standing over the body of what looked like a very hot guy without his shirt on. "Hey B, who's the stud?" Faith asked, jokingly, as she walked closer to the blonde slayer.

Buffy looked up at Faith with a serious expression on her face as she asked, "um...can you keep a secret?"

Faith looked from Buffy, with her serious face, down to the guy who didn't seem to be breathing, and back up at Buffy, "what, did you kill him or something?" Faith joked, hoping to get at least a smile out of the serious blonde.

But Buffy didn't even crack a smile. "I mean it Faith. Can I trust you?"

Faith studied Buffy's face and saw that this was very important to her so, "yeah, of course you can trust me. What's going on?"

Buffy took a deep breath then she nodded to Angel and said, "this is...Angel."

Faith was sure she'd heard wrong. "Sorry B, I must've heard wrong. What did you say?"

Buffy knew that Faith would want a more detailed explanation but right then she didn't have one. She also needed to move Angel before he came to and posed a greater risk. "Faith, I promise to explain more, soon. But right now I could use your help getting him," Buffy pointed to Angel, "somewhere safe. Will you help me?"

Faith thought about it for a moment, though she knew she wasn't going to say no to Buffy. Something about the other slayer made it hard for Faith to deny her much of anything. "Gonna hold ya to that promise. But yeah I'll help. Where'd you have in mind?"

Buffy thought for a moment, glad that Faith had agreed to help her, and she remembered Angel's old mansion. "There's a mansion on the other edge of these woods. We can take him there."

Faith nodded her agreement and, together, they got the still unconscious Angel into Faith's car. Faith drove to the mansion and, in complete silence, she helped Buffy get him inside.

Faith was guarding Angel near the wall Buffy had pointed at when they'd entered. Faith watched as Buffy advanced on a trunk against the other wall that had a bunch of dolls on it.

Buffy swept Drusilla's dolls to the floor with her arm, her only objective being to get the chains that she knew had to be in the trunk. Angel had mentioned them once after Spike had almost killed him trying to restore Drusilla's vampiric health.

Buffy found the chains and took them to where Faith was waiting with Angel. Buffy looped the chain through a cast iron fixture on the wall overhead and then attached the shackles to Angel's wrists. Once she was confident he was restrained, Buffy nodded to Faith who moved far enough away to be out of Angel's sight when he woke up. Buffy was noticing that Angel was slowly coming to, she hoped that Angels soul was still with him.

Faith watched as Angel came to and, growling, lunged at Buffy. Luckily, the chains held him back and Buffy was a safe distance from him.

Buffy walked away from Angel after he lunged at her. She watched him, lost in her guilt, and almost forgot Faith was there. Angel was crouched low, as if poised for an attack. Buffy saw him sniff the air for a few seconds then he turned his head and looked right at Faith. Amazingly, seeing Faith made Angel retreat to the wall behind him, much the way an abused child would cower from its abuser.

Faith watched as Angel cowered from her and she inwardly grinned. A part of her was glad he seemed to fear her, as he should, since unlike Buffy, Faith was a slayer who would have no problem staking him.

"Ok B, he's chained up, away from the upcoming sunlight. Time to explain. If this is really Angel, shouldn't he still be in some hell dimension? Or did you lie about that?"

Buffy looked at Faith. She was right, Angel should have been in hell...but he wasn't. "First of all, this is Angel. I never lied to you Faith. I did send him to hell. He went there with his soul intact to suffer hundreds of years of torment. I don't know why or how he came back. I intend to find out but I need you to promise you won't tell anyone--not even Kennedy--about Angel being back."

"I can agree to not tell your friends but, are you telling me you don't trust Kenn?" Faith was, understandably, upset over the notion that Kennedy couldn't be trusted.

Buffy really hoped she wasn't about to tell Faith something she didn't already know. "In general, I trust Kennedy because she is your sister. But Faith, her crush on Willow and her close friendship with Cordy might make her slip up and say something. I trusted her to watch over Oz and to be able to handle it, but this is more important. If the others find out he's back before I know why, and if he's still got his soul, it will be very bad. Please Faith?"

Faith understood Buffy's reasoning but, "I can't really keep secrets from Kenn, B. Not only did I promise her I wouldn't, but she knows me too well. I know she's crushing on Red but, Kenn can keep secrets. You can trust her B."

Buffy thought about it, it really wasn't fair to ask Faith to keep secrets from her sister. "OK but no one else can know Faith!"

"Deal. So what now? Back to patrol or do you think maybe...Angel killed that guy last night?"

Buffy didn't want to admit that it was possible Angel had killed Jeff Orkin, if Jeff was unlucky enough to get in his way. "Well I wanna check some of Giles books at the library. Can you drop me off there and pick up Kennedy? You two might as well call it a night. The sun will up soon anyway."

Faith nodded, knowing that she could keep her promise. Faith turned and headed back out to her car, all the while thinking that she might be able to convince Kennedy to let her patrol a little longer.

Buffy took one last look at Angel and saw that as soon as Faith was out of sight, he seemed to relax a bit. Buffy took a deep breath before she turned and followed Faith to the car.

The drive back to the school was made in silence, not even the radio was on, as both girls were trapped in their own thoughts.

Faith was thinking about Kennedy. Buffy had known about her crush on Willow, which meant that Kennedy hadn't been as careful as Faith had hoped she'd be. Although Buffy seemed to be ok with it, Faith knew that Buffy had also been thinking more about Angel and that her reaction could do a 180 and turn unpleasant. Faith didn't want to see Kennedy hurt, but also didn't want to have to take sides. Not now that she'd admitted to herself that she was falling for the blonde slayer.

Buffy was thinking about the fallout from Angel's return. If he did kill Jeff, then she might not have any choice but to kill him, especially if he'd done it because he didn't come back with his soul. Buffy knew that even if Angel did have his soul, there was no future for them. They could never have a real relationship because not only would there be the constant worry about losing his soul, but her friends would never accept them being together after everything that Angel had done when he'd been evil. Buffy also had to admit that while she would always love Angel, she wasn't in love with him anymore. A summer spent torturing herself in LA had effectively managed to convince her to let him go--despite her dreams of having him back. Besides, she had Scott now and while she wasn't in love with him either, she was willing to at least try to love him. He was safer than the alternative.

Faith parked the car in the schools parking lot in a space closest to the door that would lead to the library. Faith had picked out this spot a few days ago when she had been picking Kennedy up from school.

Buffy snapped out of her thoughts when the car turned off and she turned to look at Faith. Buffy caught Faith a moment before she managed to put her guard up again and she saw something in Faith's eyes that almost reminded her of the looks Xander used to give her. The look was gone before she could be sure so Buffy dismissed it as her imagination.

Faith and Buffy left the car and headed towards the door that Giles managed to always leave unlocked as it led to the hallway right outside the library. Buffy opened the door and let Faith enter first. As Buffy closed the door behind her, she sensed there was something not quite right in the building...something was off and her slayer sense was tingling. She turned to Faith to see if she felt it too, by the look on the other girl's face Buffy could tell she sensed it too.

Slowly, they made their way to the library, hoping that they were overacting to the complete silence in the building. It was the silence that had worried Buffy, Oz in werewolf form always made some noise. Growling, roaring, or just rattling the cage as he struggled to escape, but now there was silence coming from the library. Buffy made it to the library doors first and she slowly creaked the door open, bracing herself for whatever was on the other side. When she got a glimpse into the room and saw what was happening...she was too stunned to move, causing Faith to bump up against her back and instinctively wrap one arm around her as the other one found the other door to brace herself so they both didn't fall over. When Faith turned to look at what was keeping Buffy still, she couldn't help but grin.

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Kennedy didn't know how long she'd stood there, staring at the wolf in his cage, with the tranquilizer gun in her hands. It seemed like hours but she knew it couldn't have been that long. Kennedy's dark side was whispering that it would be so easy and no one would ever suspect her of doing it on purpose if she just...took out the competition. Even though it was whispering, at that moment it was louder than Kennedy's good side which was trying to convince her not to do it. That Oz wasn't worth losing everything she held dear. She would lose any chance she had with Willow however slim it might be, she would lose the trust of Buffy and her watcher, which Kennedy had to admit was a nice feeling, but most importantly, she'd lose Faith's respect.

Faith, knowing how she felt about Willow and knowing her as well as she did, would see right through Kennedy's cover story and know the truth. Kennedy would lose her standing in Faith's eyes. She'd never look at her the same way, she'd never think of her the same way, there'd always be that truth between them and Kennedy's good side knew she wouldn't survive it.

Kennedy stood there, gun raised and aimed at the wolf, her arms trembling with the effort of fighting the battle within herself between what she knew was right and what she wanted to do regardless of right or wrong.

After her good side used its trump card: Faith's respect and love, Kennedy made her decision. She wasn't going to risk losing that just to get rid of Oz. She'd find another way to deal with her jealousy and her emotions that wouldn't involve destroying the one thing she treasured more than even her own life: Faith's respect.

Slowly, Kennedy lowered the gun and let it hang at her side. She let out a breath she didn't even know she'd been holding and slumped a little. Kennedy looked at the wolf, it had stopped pacing and sat there looking at Kennedy. The entire time Kennedy had the gun trained on it, the wolf had been sitting there just looking at her. It hadn't tried to fight it, hadn't tried to escape the cage to tear her apart for the threat she posed. It simply looked at her and waited to see what she would do. Kennedy looked into the wolf's eyes and saw a sadness in them that she didn't understand.

Before she could examine why there'd be sadness in a wild wolf's eyes, Kennedy heard the door in the hallway open. Someone was in the building and Kennedy knew, from what Giles had told her, that the door that had opened was the one Buffy usually used at night. Kennedy quickly moved to place the gun on the counter behind her then she went to the table and hid her dagger in her sleeve again. Kennedy sat down at the table and, making sure to keep the cage in her line of sight, she picked up the book she'd been reading before Giles had left her alone, and began to read. She knew that she looked like she'd been reading the whole time and she was glad that she had good hearing.

Kennedy had read three pages by the time she sensed the door to the library opening and she silently wondered what had taken Buffy so long to make the short walk down the hallway. Kennedy had no way of knowing that the silence from the wolf, which Kennedy had taken as a good sign, had set off alarms in Buffy's head.

Faith looked at her sister looking like shed been reading the whole time and grinned. She knew Kennedy very well and knew that the casual look about her was an act. She'd been up to something and had probably heard their entrance and was now trying to act like she was just reading.

Faith carefully moved Buffy aside and turned to look at her, "B, whats up?"

Buffy snapped out of her surprise at seeing Oz so calm and relaxed in his wolf form and turned to Faith, "nothing it's just...well Oz is never that relaxed in his wolf form. It threw me."

"Oh." Faith decided that the stress of the earlier events must've been a factor here so she shrugged it off and walked closer to her sister. "Hey Kenn, slow night?"

Kennedy looked up at her sister and knew that Faith wasn't buying her casual reading act but she also noticed that Buffy seemed to believe it so she kept it up. "Yeah. Oz was a bit restless at first but he calmed down so I've just been reading. How was patrol?"

Buffy came up to stand next to the table and smiled down at Kennedy, "slow. Anyway, I realized you might not be used to staying up all night and there is school tomorrow so I'm giving you the rest of the night off. I'll stay here with Oz and cram for my French test while Faith and you head home. Thanks again for watching Oz tonight Kennedy."

Kennedy, happy to be getting away from the temptation smiled, "OK. But for the record I don't need as much sleep as most people do. Comes from staying up late waiting for Faith to come back from patrols for the last year. Also, no need to thank me Buffy, it was fun. C'mon Faith, lets go home."

Faith, not knowing what to say, just nodded and turned to go. Before she walked out the door she turned back to Buffy and grinned, "Ne pas veiller trop tard mon ami." Then she left. Faith had taken French classes at the Community College in Boston at Liz's insistence. Liz had said that she'd never know when it might come in handy. Faith had taken the classes to make Liz happy but she'd remembered enough to get by and now she was glad she had. The puzzled look on Buffy's face was worth every minute she'd spent in those classes.

Buffy stood staring at the door long after Faith had left. She was wondering what the French phrase that Faith had spoken meant. She knew that mon ami meant 'my friend' but what was the rest? Buffy realized that she'd have to find that out before she looked up anything else. It would bug her the whole night if she didn't. Buffy went to the card catalogue and began looking for a French to English dictionary listing.

Buffy noticed that even with Kennedy gone, Oz was still sitting in the same spot just staring at...Buffy followed his line of sight and saw the tranquilizer gun on the counter. Oz was staring at it. Hmmm...weird.

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Faith and Kennedy were in the car at a red light when Faith turned to look at her sister. "Ok, wanna tell me what's going on? Because I know you weren't reading this whole time."

Kennedy looked at Faith, knowing she would see through any lie she told. Kennedy began to tell Faith the truth about what she'd almost done. Faith sat listening and when the light turned green she drove until she could pull over. Once she did she turned to face Kennedy.

"So let me see if I got this, you almost killed Oz in wolf form because he's the only thing standing between you and Red?"

Kennedy just nodded.

"So what stopped you?" Faith needed to know that it wasn't just hearing them entering the school that had stopped her sister from committing cold blooded murder.

Kennedy turned and faced her sister, tears in her eyes, as she said, "I knew if I did that...youd know the truth no matter what story I gave the others and I would lose your respect. I would be a murderer and I know you would never look at me the same way, never think of me the same way. I would be a killer and, while I know you might not tell the others the truth, it would always be there between us and I couldn't risk that. You're my sister, Faith. From the day you moved back home and I met you for the first time, it was always you and me against the world. You made the nightmares go away and made me feel safe again. And if I ever lost that because of my own selfish actions, I wouldn't survive it." The tears were flowing down Kennedy's face now, the full impact of what she would have lost with that one action hitting her full force.

Faith sat in silence for a moment, thinking about what Kennedy had said. She knew it was the truth and she also knew she felt the same way. For the longest time it really had been them against the world, even after Liz had come into her life, it was always her and Kennedy, to the point that even Liz knew it and Faith believed that was why she trained Kennedy too.

"Ok. Well I'm glad you didn't cross that line. I'm glad you stopped yourself Kenn. Now hand me the knife."

Kennedy whipped her head around to face Faith, "what?"

"You heard me Kenn. Hand it over." Faith waited patiently as Kennedy reluctantly slipped the knife out of her sleeve and slowly handed it over, handle first. Faith took it and slipped it up her own sleeve for safe keeping, it wouldn't be good if a cop stopped them and saw it on the back seat or something. "You'll get it back in a week and once a month, when Oz is in wolf form, you'll hand it over to me again for those three days, are we clear?"

Kennedy saw what Faith was doing, she was taking the temptation away as best she could. Kennedy nodded. Satisfied, Faith started the car again and drove the rest of the way to their apartment.

Faith and Kennedy were preparing for bed when Faith decided that since Kennedy had been honest with her, she should be honest with Kennedy. Faith sat Kennedy down in the kitchen at the table and told her about Angel and Buffy wanting to find out why he was back. She also made Kennedy promise that she wouldn't tell anyone about this, not Willow, not Cordelia, no one. Kennedy, recognizing the gravity of the situation promised.

The sisters went to bed and were soon fast asleep.

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Buffy smiled when she finally translated the phrase that Faith had left her with, it was sweet. Then she began to look up books about Acathla and demon dimensions. She had to see if they offered a reason as to why Angel was back.

Buffy found the books and camped out in a spot on the upper level to read, keeping Oz in her line of site. Oddly enough, Oz stayed calm the rest of the night. Buffy decided to ask Oz first if he knew why he was so calm and maybe mention it to Giles as well.

Buffy read until her eyes drooped and she fell asleep among the books.

TBC...

A/N: Translation of Faith's words: "Don't stay up too late, my friend." (rough translation since I'm not a french speaker)