I'm feeling too lazy for the pre-chapter notes, so...

Danke for the reviews. Keep them coming! Enjoy.

They stood outside, all pausing a moment to stare in through the window at the frail girl in the hospital bed, sleeping with a distressed expression on her beautiful face.

"She is so young." Lailo murmured, loud enough for them all to hear it.

"And so beautiful."

Buffy couldn't explain the sudden resentment she felt at the statement. Or the scowl that appeared on her face. Or the embarrassment she felt when she saw Cordelia smirk at her reaction.

"Young, beautiful, and psychotic. Such a catch." Willow declared sarcastically, missing the moment.

Lailo turned to bare her teeth at the Wiccan, showing them the sharp canines that protruded from beneath her lips like those of a vampire, though her face did not change into disfigurement. Her white eyes seemed to flash into a red for a split second as she growled.

"You would do well to watch your mouth, witch." She spat disgustedly.

"Hey, back off." Buffy stepped immediately between them, then watching in surprise as Lailo's countenance suddenly returned to the former angelic one.

"Perhaps you should ask your posse to do the same, Slayer." The demon spoke softly, before following Angel and Giles into the room.

"Great! We just asked a psycho to help us with the other psycho! Donuts, anyone?" Xander squeaked, exaggerating his nervousness with a forced twitch to his left eye.

"Oh stop it, Xander. If Willow here had stopped talking before she could think, that wouldn't have happened." Anya glared pointedly at Willow

"I resent that, and you shouldn't be on Faith's side, anyway." Willow retorted.

"Well she scares the piss out of you, so that's already reason enough to like her." Cordelia remarked snidely, casually leaning up against the wall and crossing her arms defensively.

"Would it kill you to be nice?" Buffy let out an exasperated sigh.

"Yes, and I'd like to stay alive for as long as I'm beautiful."

Buffy turned to Xander.

"I can't believe you dated her."

Xander smiled widely and shrugged.

"Hey, well, that's one thing we have in common!"

"Hardy har, what's the other thing; neither of you can find a good hair stylist?" Cordelia responded flippantly as she turned to glance inwards at the spectacle.

"D-do you th-think it'll be o-okay?" Tara asked softly as she walked up beside the tall brunette, gazing inward with her concerned blue eyes.

Cordelia didn't face the blonde, not wanting for a second to look away from what her friend might be enduring, but the tears threatening to fall and the break of her voice spoke volumes.

"It has to be okay. She has to be." She whispered, voice cracking like she couldn't handle the pressure, face unchanging, but the slight flush to her face revealing the possible waterworks.

Buffy swallowed her pride and placed a gentle hand on Cordelia's shoulder, and nearly sighed in relief when the high school queen didn't jerk away or turn around to slap her across the face.

"She'll be fine. Faith always manages to get out of the bad." Buffy needed to believe the words as much as Cordelia needed to hear them.

Because the tall brunette was right; Faith had to be alright for things to be okay.

Why? Well, Buffy wasn't quite sure, either.

"Yup. Cause you know, Faith, she's...one tough cookie." Willow mumbled not quite as enthusiastically as she might've if it was someone else, but trying, nonetheless.

"Speaking of cookies..." Xander reached inside Anya's purse, pulling out a small ziplock bag full of sugar cookies.

They all gave him varying looks of relief and amusement; leave it to Xander Harris to provide the sugary snacks and the distraction away from the somber mood that befell them. As each of them ate at their cookie - all in personal fashion - they watched through the glass window intently.

Lailo stood still, listening to the words that seemed to be spoken by both Angel and Giles, probably briefing her on what they knew so far about Faith and her injuries. Perhaps a bit on her past and what Lailo should be unlocking, because the return of all of Faith's memory was vital. Absolutely key in sorting things out again. Faith was having some sort of problem before she was sent into this amnesiac spell, and even if the Scoobies weren't planning on staying to help; Angel and Cordelia were definitely in want of helping her through it. Faith was in trouble, and even if she only had two actual friends...maybe they'd be able to help her overcome it.

Whatever the hell it was.

Suddenly, they saw Lailo's hands come up to stop Angel and Giles from speaking. Then she neared Faith's bed, looking down directly at the sleeping girl. And she stood.

Just stood.

"Why is she just...standing there?" Dawn fidgeted nervously, Buffy's lip biting clearly showing her own personal agitation at the scene.

"I don't know, pet, but it's making me bloody nervous." Spike finally spoke, brows furrowing as he also looked on with interest.

They turned to Anya, who was chewing wholeheartedly on her second cookie with no real sense of worry on her face. Xander gave her a little nudge, nodding towards the rest of them, who asked the question with their expressions.

"She's just getting ready to enter her. You don't need to act like she's about to cut off her head."

Pause.

"Because she's not."

Buffy sighed.

"We know, it's just that it's kinda weird. No, not just weird. It's freaky."

"For once, we agree on something." Cordelia deadpanned, smoothing her blouse out almost aggressively so. Even if it was clear that she was stressing out about the whole situation, she would never admit it openly; she certainly had too much pride to be acknowledging such weakness to these miscreants of her aggravatingly unpleasant past.

"Well, it's decided. If this all goes wrong...it's Anya's fault!" Willow joked nervously, the tension freaking her out.

"What?!"

"An, it's okay, Will was just joking."

"I thought jokes were supposed to be funny. Is this one of those really strange jokes? Because I failed to see the humor in it." Anya stated indignantly.

Willow was about to retort when there was a sharp intake of air and an exclamation:

"L-look!" Tara whispered excitedly, pretty pale eyes widening just like everyone else's were as they took in the image.

Even Anya looked on with anticipation.

Lailo was glowing. Shining, almost like an angel from an old movie with cheap graphics, except that this was the real deal. This was happening right before their eyes, and it was slightly unnerving. And as she shone brighter and brighter by the second, they squinted and blinked or turned away, almost missing the sudden flash of black before they saw her figure being sucked in through Faith's slightly parted lips. Her body arched up into the air for a halting moment, then fell back down onto the cot.

Lailo was gone.

They all let out a breath of relief, when a high keening noise broke the peace. The monitors flashed and the numbers were skyrocketing, then plummeting in erratic paces that simply could not be normal. Then Faith began to shake. Angel reached for her thrashing body while Giles rushed out into the hallway - where they were too shocked to move - calling out,

"Doctor! Where's the blasted doctor?!"

Immediately a nurse appeared with a syringe and the doctor followed right behind her. As Angel firmly held her down, the nurse pricked the needle through the skin and injected Faith's arm full of a sleeping narcotic, to alleviate any pain and to stabilize her system. While the doctor checked all immediate vitals, the nurse had to reboot the machines; all of which were strangely off calibration, even though they were perfectly fine not even an hour ago.

System malfunction?

Only they knew that had nothing to do with it.

"Is she..." Angel couldn't finish the question. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"She's seemed to have gotten back to her expected condition. She should be fine, but I'm afraid she'll be here for a while before she returns to normal." The doctor shook his head, sincerely concerned.

"So young, and yet so...haunted. You wouldn't believe a girl like that had done what she had." He tsked, pinching at the bridge of his nose.

"Well she's changed." Cordelia butted in defensively.

The doctor gave them all a sad look, smiling softly.

"I wasn't judging her, miss. I only wonder what in the world happened in her life to have pushed her so far. But there's no surprise. I talked to the Warden the other day about her hospitalization and it seems she has no immediate family, no money, nothing to her name, really, nothing out there waiting for her if she ever gets out. And that nasty accident she had not too long ago, the one that put her in a coma? I mean, I read about it and..." He shook his head again.

"I have to wonder if it really was a car crash. Looks like someone took a knife to her. Makes you wonder if she really deserves the sentence. Poor kid."

"Well maybe she deserved everything she got. She is the murderer here." Willow spoke up in defense of her friend, knowing the reference to the past that involved that night was making Buffy twinge.

He gave the redhead a funny look.

"Yes, but if she died, someone else would be, too."

Ouch.

It hit Buffy hard, and suddenly a part of her that she didn't recognize felt the guilt of never visiting Faith while she lied in Sunnydale General Hospital, waiting for nothing but to either wake up to nothing or to die as a nobody. And if she had died...?

Then the doctor was right. Somebody else would've been a murderer, and that somebody else was Buffy.

"Maybe she deserved it." Willow protested again, trying to convince not only the doctor, but themselves as well.

Maybe she didn't.

Buffy couldn't help but think, the thought having been in her head since the very second she stuck the knife into Faith's stomach.

"Yea, maybe she was just in with a bad crowd." Xander added in, noticing the effect the doctor's words had on Buffy.

"And what, made some 'good' enemies?" The man made a disbelieving face, somewhat appalled by their gall. Weren't they supposed to be here to visit the girl? He had assumed they were friends. Then his expression hardened and he couldn't help but want to sock them all in the face, but before he could respond, another voice cut through the tension like a knife.

Soft. Low. Husky.

"With friends like them, who needs enemies?"