A/N: Yay another update from Lil ole me. LOL I as the author am getting impatient/. So hopefully things will start to pick up, and we'll possibly see Faith outside the prison walls...Until then hope you continue to enjoy anyway.

Chapter 10

"…Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred. Damn, Faith, where do you get all that upper body strength?" Joey asked, as Faith set the bar back in its resting position on the bench press. "I mean that thing's gotta have more than three hundred pounds on it right?"

"I guess," Faith replied like it didn't matter. Truthfully she knew exactly how much weight was on the bar and it wasn't close to what she would have liked. She figured though that any more and people might start to question it. She swung her arms across each other, stretching them out. "I've always been in good shape, I exercised a lot 'fore I got put in here," she finished half lying. It was true she worked out when she trained, but not the kind of exercise Joey was thinking of.

"How's your kid doing?" Faith smiled at the mention of her daughter. Her hesitancy to talk about her with this woman was growing smaller and smaller, as the two women had grown closer together. Joey asked about Nevaeh often, and the two had become fairly good friends through their time together.

"I got some pictures and a letter from Buffy about her first Easter Egg hunt a few weeks ago. She looked so damn cute in her Easter dress twirling around." Faith smiled, remembering each and every picture as if she had them right in front of her. "She was so proud of her little basket of eggs, holding 'em up for the world to see with that smirk on her face. Wish I had pictures of myself when I was her age, but my Ma never took any. B says she looks just like me, but I gotta wonder. Glad Nevaeh has a Mom that takes lots of pictures of her. Although that was almost a month ago."

"And you haven't heard from her since?" Joey watched as Faith shook her head no. "Isn't that weird? Don't you exchange letters and phone calls fairly regularly?"

"Not really. It is May after all. There's always some big ap…project going on in B's job around then. Sides if something had happened someone would have told me," she shrugged.

"I was thinkin' more like she was just tired of it. Ya know like most of our families, they visit at first and all that, but then over time they just forget about us."

"Nah, that's not like B. I'm sure I'll hear from her soon."

Joey just nodded her head as if she believed her, "Alright, hope it works out for you."

Faith hoped so too. She wouldn't admit it, but she often wondered about that very thing. Kept thinking that maybe one day B would get tired of the long drives, and the time it took to write a letter. Fearing the day that might happen and she wouldn't get to see her daughter anymore. She had to believe B meant it when she assured her that Nevaeh would continue to know who she was.

If she didn't hear from Buffy soon, she'd try to call Angel and see if he knew what was going on.

Buffy sat trying to listen to the meeting that was going on around her as Willow, Tara and Xander all conversed on the Trio's immediate plans. She couldn't get her mind away from the bathroom scene with Spike and what had almost happened.

She had never felt so terrified in her life. She knew he was in love with her, but she had no idea her continued rejections would lead him to do something so horrible. The terror had left her almost paralyzed as she begged him to stop. Her slayer abilities left her in her moment of fear and she couldn't do anything to stop him.

She still didn't know where she had finally found the strength to push him away and stop him. For the first time in a long time, she could see the animal in him and it chilled her to the core. If she would have been anyone other than a slayer, she wouldn't have had a chance.

Focusing back into what Willow was saying, she listened to her and Tara, as they explained where the three boys would hit next. Glad she might finally have a chance to stop them once and for all, she readied herself before heading out to the armored car that was just sitting there about to be robbed.

Hours later, Buffy tried not let it show as she wandered back into the house, but Warren had done a number on her with those "orbs" whatever they were. She'd have to ask Willow to research them for her and find out if it was something they should worry about in the future.

As she did after each battle, she bypassed those sitting around the living room waiting on her return and headed straight up to Nevaeh's room. The baby barely moved as she entered the room and walked over to the crib, lightly running a hand over the little one's chubby cheek.

Now that she had Nevaeh, she could understand her mother's worry about her being a slayer. She couldn't imagine having to let Nevaeh one day walk out that door to fight the forces of evil. All she wanted was for her daughter to be safe. She'd fight 'til her last breath to make that happen.

She ran her hands over the sleeping baby one more time, before she felt she was satisfied enough that she was alright, before turning to head back out the door. Shutting the door halfway so a little bit of light still made it into the room, she headed back down the stairs. Finding everyone still in the living room, she prepared to tell them what had happened with the trio.

Those three had been a nuisance for far too long. The day they had hit her with the invisible ray gun had been the worst. Not for her but for Nevaeh. Her daughter was showing signs of being fairly sensitive to the world around her. When she could only feel her mother and not see her, the baby started to get really whiney and upset and wouldn't stop crying. Buffy tried to soothe her but it only seemed to make the situation worse.

Buffy had a view that day of what it would be like if she had died, like if the fight with Glory had gone down the way she was told it was supposed to. She couldn't imagine what that would have been like for the gang to deal with Nevaeh, as she spent hours crying out "mommy," over and over again as she had that day. Thank goodness they were able to reverse it, and the smile her daughter gave her when she walked in the door melted her heart.

At least two of them were now in jail where they rightfully belonged. Hopefully it was a matter of time before they found Warren as well.

The day was shaping up to be a hot one, as Faith played basketball with a few of the other girls during their outside time. At last count her and Joey were ahead by ten points. The other team was a couple of newbies, which around here that meant they had been here under a year.

Faith had just scored a basket and was waiting for Chrissy to pass the ball into Tina. As soon as the ball was in play she ran up to get up in Tina's face, as she tried to dribble down and find her shot. The girl was predictable, she almost always show from the same side of the court.

Seeing the opening she was looking for, Faith pushed the ball out of her hand and dribbled it back down the court, throwing up a layup from the right side. The basketball went in, but she missed it, as an intense pain filled her chest the same moment her feet hit the ground again. She'd never felt anything like it before.

Even as intense as it was, she knew it wasn't her own pain she was feeling, as she doubled over, falling to the ground. "Buffy…"

Guards swarmed her side, dragging her into the infirmary. She lay on the bed for what felt like hours, not able to help the nurses understand what was going on with her. All she knew was that something was happening to Buffy and she couldn't do a dang thing about it where she was. She could feel the other girl get weaker and weaker the longer it went on. Then she just felt an incredible emptiness and sense of loss. She feared the worst had happened.

Just as everything she was feeling had appeared, it disappeared as quickly. The pain was gone as well as the emptiness. She jolted out of the bed they had placed her on and headed for the door. The nurses tried to stop her, telling she needed to settle down so they could figure out what was going on with her.

"No I'm fine, I just need to make a phone call," she tried, moving to push passed them when they stood between her and the doorway. "Dammit, I'm fine now, I swear. I just need to get to a fucking phone!"

Pushing in between them, she headed out the door as fast as she could, making her way to the common area where the nearest phone was situated. It was a good thing there was no line, or she might have been forced to knock some people out. She had to know what was going on.

Punching in the numbers for Buffy's house as fast as possible, she listened as it rang and rang before the voicemail came on. She tried Xander's next and even Giles, but nobody was answering their phones. She wished she knew the number to the Magic Box, but she hadn't bothered to ask cause she never thought she'd need it.

When her third attempt on Buffy's house went unanswered, she slammed the phone back in its cradle, "Dammit!" She thought about trying Angel, but figured he wouldn't have a clue what was going on either. All she was left with was to wait and wonder and hope somebody contacted her soon.

Running her hands hard through her hair, she made her way back to her cell, praying that everybody was alright.

Buffy awkwardly made her way into the house, with a sleepy Nevaeh in one arm and a bag of groceries in the other. She could hear the phone ringing as she made her way into the kitchen, she tried to hurry and sit the bag down, but it wasn't balanced and it tipped over and food began to go all over the place. Torn between the food and the phone, she finally couldn't take the ringing any longer and grabbed up the phone.

"Hello?"

"B? Oh, thank God," she heard Faith mutter on the other end.

"Faith?" she questioned, wondering why she heard such a sense of relief in the other girl's voice.

"I've just been trying to reach you for days, but I couldn't ever get anybody on the phone."

"Why? What's wrong?" Buffy was worried now, but before she could get an answer from Faith, she heard the other girl mumbling something to someone else.

"Ah, guess it's nothing. Look, I gotta go B. I'll talk to you later." Before the words were entirely out of her mouth the phone went silent and a definitive click was heard.

Buffy stood there in the kitchen, rocking a not almost all the way out Nevaeh on her shoulder, trying to figure out what to do. What had Faith's phone call been about anyway? She needed to know and she just didn't think she could wait to find out.

"Sorry, baby, looks like we're getting back in the car. Hopefully we'll make it before visiting hours are up, because I need to speak to Mama." When that didn't get a reaction from the little girl, she knew she was out cold. Hopefully she'd sleep the entire drive so she'd get a full nap.

Buffy barely made the deadline for afternoon visiting hours, as she raced through the front doors to get in line to go through security. It's a good thing she now always carried a "prison diaper bag" in the car as Nevaeh would need a diaper change and soon. Right now she was still half asleep on Buffy's shoulder.

They led her into one of the visiting rooms, Faith wasn't in there yet, so she laid Nevaeh down on the table and quickly changed her diaper. She threw the dirty one in the plastic bag, knowing she'd have to throw it away after she left the building. It was more than ten minutes before Faith finally entered the room, surprised to see her.

"Hey, B," she greeted, the shock evident in her voice. Soon as Nevaeh heard Faith's voice her little head shot straight up to look for her.

"Mama," she cried, reaching for her. Faith didn't bother to look in the direction of the guard who wasn't Eddie this time. She simply took her daughter from Buffy's arms, daring the woman to say something about. She wasn't too worried. Josie was one of the nicer guards, more like Eddie. She knew the woman had kids of her own and wasn't likely to say anything.

Buffy ignored Faith's greeting, not wanting to talk small talk when she was wondering what that phone call was all about.

"What's going on, Faith? What was with that phone call?"

Seeing Buffy and Vaeh for herself and that they were alright, made her more emotional than she thought possible and she tried to hold it all in, not wanting the older slayer to see it. "I guess I just got worried when I didn't hear from you for awhile."

Buffy thought back and realized that other than the pictures and stuff from Easter, it in fact had been awhile since they really had talked in person or on the phone. Their last visit had been in February if she recalled and it was almost June now. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize how long it had been I guess. We were kinda dealing with something."

"I figured it was uh, worked related," she said, knowing they'd really have to be careful about what they said. This was the first time Eddie wasn't around, and they had gotten so used to him they weren't always as careful as they should have been. Although Faith had a feeling he knew something about what went bump in the night. She kept meaning to ask him, but never had the chance to when others weren't around.

"Well sorta, wasn't anything too bad, just three guys that called themselves 'The Trio,' far more normal than we're used to," Buffy tried, hoping Faith would understand what she was saying. She seemed to as she nodded her head. "But we had a little disagreement and well the leader pulled out a gun. I ended up in the crossfire and got shot. I was pretty much dead, but thanks to Willow- who got help quickly," she tried to cover, "I'm fine now." She really hoped Faith would understand what she was really saying, and hoping she'd know what kind of power that would take to pull it off.

"She went after him though, guy almost killed Tara as well, so she was pretty angry. Anyway she, um, found him. Didn't end well. She's with Giles now in England. Kinda doing what Wesley tried to do with you, only nicer and geared towards skills," Buffy finished, hoping she'd said it in a way that left the guard clueless if she was listening to them, although she didn't believe she was.

Faith leaned forward, watching Buffy do the same, so she could tell her quietly why she'd been so worried. "I felt you die, B. I felt it all, the bullet, you getting weaker, until all I felt was emptiness. Nurses here couldn't figure what was going on with me. But then it all just went away, so I tried to call ya, and been trying every day since, but I couldn't get anyone to answer the phone."

They both leaned back again, "I'm sorry, we've been so busy dealing with Willow I haven't even thought to check the phone." She wanted to comment on Faith being able to feel all that too, but felt it wasn't the place. She'd have Giles look into and then they could talk about it later in a letter or something.

"It's aight, so long as you guys are all ok."

"We're all fine now. I promise you. Well, except Xander, he and Anya didn't end up getting married. They are both pretty tore up about it."

"Better for them," Faith said strongly.

"What you don't believe in marriage? Or theirs in particular?" Buffy asked curiously. She knew Faith had a bad childhood, she wondered if this was one of those things that had leaked into adulthood.

Faith just shrugged, "Marriage, it's all a sham, a big lie. Causes too many problems."

"Sorry you feel that way."

"I'm surprised you don't." Buffy knew she was talking about Buffy's parents. It was true they had divorced, but in the long run it had been the best thing for her mom. Her dad wasn't the guy she thought he was growing up.

"I think it can be right, when you find the right person and you are both committed to making it work. My dad wasn't, it got hard so he left. Sometimes that's just the way it is," she said honestly.

"Yeah well, I never plan on getting hitched, not like I could from in here even if I wanted to anyway." Faith almost sounded sad about that, so Buffy wasn't sure if she really believed what she was saying, or if she was just trying to keep up that tough girl exterior she held so dear.

"You girls better wrap it up, times almost up," Josie told them from her post by the door. "And bring that girl of yours over here so I can take a look."

Faith wasn't sure if Josie meant Nevaeh or Buffy. She knew that even though she'd told everyone otherwise, people seemed to believe there was something between her and Buffy. She'd just decided she'd live with it. Not like it mattered anyway. Getting up, she started to head across the room to Josie, nodding to Buffy to follow.

The older woman studied the baby for a minute, before reaching out and touching the little girl's head of curly hair. "She looks just like you," she told Faith, as Buffy came to stand beside her. "The three of you make such a cute family," the guard smiled at them. She knew Faith was just a mixed up kid when she got sentenced. She was a good girl deep down, and she was always happy when the people that deserved it had people who loved them and would help them through the difficult times.

Buffy glanced at Faith as the older woman spoke, wondering what the younger slayer thought about what the guard had just said, but Faith just shrugged her shoulders ignoring it. Buffy took Nevaeh from Faith's arms as they wrapped up their visit. She headed out the door with the word 'family' ringing in her ears.