A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long. Life got in the way of everything. This chapter's main purpose was to get me back into the story. Hopefully I've still got some grasp on what's going on. Review, comment, do it. Tell me how to improve my writing so as to better please my meager but appreciated readership.

What She Needs

Chapter 11: Into the Outside

Tara gently pulled on Faith's aura from where it was stuck in her mangled shoulder, murmuring the incantation as she went. She was in a Wiccan trance, but maintained an eye on Faith at all times. The inmate had her fists clenched and her jaw tightened but seemed otherwise in relatively good shape.

Slowly, Tara rose from her crouched position behind the sitting Faith. She could taste a change in Faith's aura. More slivers of ever-tender hope were present each time she came to see the girl, but they were hard to find. Tara nearly cried out when the wave of anger and fear crashed into her mind. Bitter bile rose in her throat. She thought this must be how Faith feels all the time. She quietly crept out of the cell, leaving Faith sitting there in her rage. Neither was in the mood to speak.

Tara figured that today wasn't the day to tell Faith that Dawn had asked after her. Maybe next time Faith would be in a position to hear the news. Tara wasn't sure whether Faith would be happy to hear from Dawn or horrified that Dawn knew what she'd done to herself.

Giles opened his mailbox with no great enthusiasm. Bills were not very intriguing. He'd recently sent out inquiries to the Watcher's Council as to Faith's file, but hadn't expected so quick a return. He suspected that they'd gotten news of her attempt and this was their grand 'show of compassion' in helping rehabilitate the woman.

The file only confirmed what Faith had told them about her early life; she'd lived in a slum in Boston with her drug addict mother and various dealers until her mother passed, and then set off on her own with the help of miscreants of every possible kind. Only gang contacts and charisma had kept her out of jail in her teen years. Once called, she'd lived with her Watcher for almost a year before Kakistos had systematically hunted them down to rape them and kill them. He'd succeeded in the Watcher's case. No one knew what had happened to Faith, only that she'd escaped and left Kakistos with one less eye than he'd come with.

It had taken Faith months to cross the country to get to Sunnydale. Different tabs the Council had kept on her showed her single-minded determination to find Buffy. With no money and no material possessions she'd gotten to Sunnydale and teamed up with the Slayer. The rest of the story was familiar to Giles.

He pinched his nose. His guilt choked him. Had he only taken her in the way he knew he should have – he stopped himself. All that was important now was to get her better.

He couldn't have known what Willow had once said - that she knew Faith had had it hard but that it didn't matter. He couldn't have known how much that had hurt the Slayer.

Willow and Faith had been rivals from the start. Rivals for Buffy's attention, they were. Willow, of course, had won in the end, but she'd never lost her resentment for the girl for challenging her spot at Buffy's right hand.

When Tara got back from the prison, she made sure to see her. They cuddled for a while comfortably. Willow could see that Tara was upset but she didn't want to hear about Faith and her pathetic problems – how could she have known they were real? So she was silent, and Tara went uncomforted. Despite spending a calm afternoon together, both felt lonely that night.

Xander met up with Buffy at the bar to talk about Faith. He had decided that the past was the past. He was no man for grudges. Buffy wished that she could so easily forgive Faith, although she though that perhaps having seen her naked helped Xander to do so. The thought that maybe she should try it made her snort. She stopped drinking at that point. She and Xander spent a pleasant night drinking lightly and talking about all of their misadventures. She realized belatedly that she'd missed him since he'd been living with Anya.

They resolved to reunite. For the first time in more than a week, Buffy slept soundly and contentedly through the night.