A.N. Next part? Check! Enjoy…

//

I blinked and rolled over a few hours later to find Faith awake and staring at the ceiling. I frowned hoping that she was okay and I slid a hand over the warm skin of her belly and she turned and gave me a soft smile.

"You okay?" I asked her softly.

She nodded. "Just trying to burn this moment into my brain."

I smiled. "I love you."

She kissed me gently. "Love you."

I turned fully on my side and watched her fully, a scar on her neck making me frown again. I reached out and ran a gentle finger over it. "I'm going to kill her."

"She's human."

Damn. "Okay, well, Willow can take her powers and I can laugh at her."

Faith smiled. "That'll hurt worse for her."

"Yeah." It was decided. I hated her.

"I'm fine, B," she whispered.

Suddenly tears sprang to my eyes. "I know. It was just really hard to see you like that. And to still see some scars."

Faith smiled a little and rolled over so she could pull me into her arms. She held me close and kissed me gently. "B, I'm here and I'm fine and you have nothing to worry about."

"I can't lose you again," I told her quietly. It was true. I was completely and utterly in love and the thought of losing her again nearly killed me.

"You won't," she assured me.

"Faith, we're slayers, you can't make that promise," I reminded her gently.

She narrowed her eyes at me for a moment and kissed me again. "I can promise you that my heart will always belong to you."

I smiled at her being sappy. She only did it occasionally and it was crazy sweet. "Ditto."

She smiled back at me and snuggled into my arms where, within moments, she fell back to sleep. I reveled in the sense of security and serenity I only found in her arms and moments later, I was fast asleep with her.

//

The next morning I woke to an empty bed and I frowned. Did Faith not realize by now that waking up alone isn't really something I enjoyed? Guess not. Truth be told, it kind of made my heart sink.

I crawled out of bed and found her on the balcony smoking. She smiled up at me and I leaned in to kiss her gently before running a hand over her hair.

"You do remember how much I like to snuggle in the morning, right?" I asked her with a smile. "And how I much I hate to wake up alone?"

She returned the smile, rather sheepishly, and took a sip of her coffee before handing it to me. "I know. I'm sorry."

"What's on your mind?" I asked after taking a long sip of coffee.

"The slayer bitch," she replied.

Interesting. "Why are you thinking about her?"

Faith sighed and her lips turned down into a deep frown. "Well, I started thinkin' about the morning I was taken. I remember sittin' on my balcony and then next thing I knew I was tied up underground."

I watched her carefully as she spoke, trying to figure out where she was going.

She paused and took a drag of her cigarette. "Well it kinda got me wonderin' how the hell she got into my place to begin with. How did she get through all our security and everyone downstairs? It was just way too easy."

I frowned deeply at this. I hadn't even thought about it. "How is it possible that we hadn't thought about all this yet?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "We're a busy bunch here, B."

"Still," I mumbled, growing more concerned the more I thought about it. "Nobody noticed anything weird that day. She had to have walked right in your front door."

"Which means she was probably one of our slayers," Faith said with a concerned look.

"Did you recognize her?" I asked. This was really not good.

Faith shook her head. "Nope."

I sighed heavily. "Well I'll get Andrew to check the security tapes and we'll get you set up with a file of all the girls we've had and still have and we'll see if you recognize her, okay?"

Faith nodded and gave me a tender smile. "Thanks, B."

I waited until she snubbed out her smoke and then grabbed her hand. "Come back to bed."

She simply smiled and it spurred my arousal immediately. I led her back to bed and we tumbled into the sheets and wrapped our arms around each other. She pulled me close and into a soul-stealing kiss and moments later it was definitely starting to feel like the old days.

//

"There's nothing on the tapes," Dawn told us as she set a file full of security pictures on the table in front of us.

"What?" I ask, totally baffled. That can't be right.

"That can't be right," Faith mumbled. See? Told you.

"She's not on the tapes anywhere," Dawn replied. "In fact, nobody goes anywhere even remotely close to Faith's front door that day."

"Well that's disappointing," Kennedy mumbled with a scowl.

"Didn't you say you were sitting on your balcony?" I asked her, remembering suddenly.

Faith nodded. "Yeah. You'd just left and I was having a cigarette."

"Maybe she didn't come in the front door," I replied.

"What, she repelled off the roof?" Dawn asked.

"Maybe," Kennedy told her thoughtfully. "We taught them how to do it, remember?" Her eyes were on me and I wanted to throw up.

"We thought it would be good training," I tried to defend. I looked at Faith with worried eyes.

She shook her head. "I thought it was good training too," she assured me. "Not your fault, B."

"So, what, she just repelled down and grabbed you and tied you up and repelled down the side of the building with you in tow?" Dawn asked. "It doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Yeah, why not just grab you when you're alone," Kennedy agreed. "On the ground."

"Who knows, who cares?" I ask them finally. "The point is that Faith was taken by a slayer. And chances are she was one of ours. We need to go out there and get her and bring her back and let Willow remove her slayer powers."

"I want to be bait," Faith announced suddenly.

Excuse me? "Um, no."

"Yeah," Faith argued gently.

"Faith, there's no way I'm going to risk letting her get her hands on you again," I told her quietly.

"Jealous much?" Kennedy asked with a smirk.

Her smirk faded quickly. That's the kind of look she got. "Faith, let's think about this."

"B, I've been thinking about it since it happened," she told me quietly. What? I was pissed she hadn't told me.

"It's been just over a week," I argued back lamely.

"So?" she asked, seeing right through me. She suddenly smirked. "You know I'm back to normal."

Is that a blush I feel rising on my cheeks? Yes. Dammit. "That doesn't mean you should go offering yourself up as bait to the woman that wanted to kill you last week."

"If it means we catch her it does," she told me.

"I won't let you," I told her. It was my last argument.

"I wasn't asking permission," she told me evenly.

This all felt so familiar, yet so far away. I hated it. "Giles, tell her this is a horrible plan."

He winced slightly and removed his glasses. "I can't, Buffy. I'm sorry. If we have a plan and back up slayers, it should go rather smoothly."

"We all know these plans never go smoothly," I argued back stubbornly.

"We'll all be there, Buff," Willow told me softly. Great, she was in on it too.

"Kennedy, you can't think this will work," I begged. She was my last option.

She looked from me to Faith to Willow and back to me. "I think it can."

Well damn. Defeated. "This is a terrible idea."

Faith smiled a little, knowing she'd won and she leaned over to kiss my cheek. "Relax, B. It's gonna be fine."

"Fine," I agreed after a few moments. "But let it be shown on the record that I do not like this."

"Noted," Dawn told me. "Well it would be…if there was an official record of what happened in these meetings." She looked at Giles. "Think we should start doing that?"

"Not at all," he told her with a smile.

"Good," she agreed with a grin of her own.

"Good," I repeated softly. I only hoped it would be.

//

I was in bed later that night, freshly showered and trying to relax by watching something mind-numbing on television, when Faith emerged from my bathroom, showered and squeaky clean herself. I barely spared her a glance as she emerged wearing boy shorts and a wifebeater. She looked good, but I wasn't happy with her and I think she saw it in my eyes.

She smiled a little and moved to the foot of the bed, blocking my view of the tv. I shot her an annoyed glance and made a motion with my hand for her to move. She grinned wider and moved so she could crawl up the bed towards me.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with her entire presence. I could smell her shampoo and the soap on her skin and I could feel the heat radiating off her skin and I wanted nothing more than to pull her close, but something stopped me.

"Come on, Buffy," she coaxed gently. Real name usage meant she was serious.

"Faith, you can't just do that," I finally told her softly.

"Do what?" she asked. "Whatever it takes to get the bad guy?"

"Exactly," I told her.

"B, you can't ask me to do that," she told me quietly. "I'm a slayer and I won't not risk my neck to save peoples' lives. I can't."

"I know," I told her finally. "But you can't just offer yourself like that without at least telling me about it."

She suddenly looked ashamed. "That I get."

"Really?" I really hoped she did.

She nodded and settled her weight on my thighs, straddling me suddenly. She kissed me gently. Focus, Buffy. "Really."

"Good." My anger gave way and suddenly I realized how warm it had gotten.

She smiled when she saw my mood change and leaned in to kiss me again. She dropped several light kisses to my lips and pulled back slightly to gauge my reaction. No complaints here. She smirked and kissed me deeper and I felt my body react instantly. My hands tangled in her hair as hers slipped under my tank. Her lips fell to my neck and I reached down and grasped the hem of her top, pulling it off of her quickly. She grinned and moved to pull my tank off. Moments later we were tangled in the sheets, our remaining clothes were removed quickly and we spent the remainder of the night making up.

//

A.N. Well? What do you think? Still enjoying? Please let me know. Thanks so much for reading…more to follow soon!