Chapter 14

(early 1997)

The two teenage girls sat atop the monkey bars in the small playground of the public park, hunched close, shoulder to shoulder, hankering against the evening's cold in too-thin jackets. The metal bars had warmed somewhat from the heat of their bodies through the material of their jeans, and they dangled their legs over the side, letting their feet swing idly as they sat together in companionable quiet for a space of time. The younger, smaller girl shook her hair back from her face eventually as she turned her head to face the other girl, who had been lazily twining her younger friend's hair around her fingers before letting it fall back over her shoulders.

"Legs," she asked, stilling her legs in their movements. "How long have you been on your own?"

The older girl gave a slight chuckle, her eyebrows lifting as she replied. "About as long as since I could take my own self to the bathroom, probably." When her friend eyed her, she shrugged, lifting her hand again to lace her fingers through the younger girl's hair so that she gave a slight shiver, partly from the cold, partly from Legs's touch.

"I don't know, Faith, probably since I was eleven, I guess, on and off. That was when I started running. I got caught sometimes, got dragged back kicking and spitting, literally sometimes. Never lasted though…every time they'd try to strap me down, I'd break free," Legs said with obvious pride, smiling, as she continued to idly move her fingers over the end of Faith's hair. "And now that's all I've got going for me, all I want, and all I need. Freedom."

Faith held still, hoping that Legs would not grow bored at the physical contact and move her hand away. She wondered to herself who the "they" Legs referred to that had chased her was. Her parents? Did Legs have parents? Social workers, foster homes, police, school officials? All of the above? But she didn't ask. Even asking as much of Legs as she had now was not only a rarity, but a risk, very possibly a way to make Legs close down on her if she wasn't careful.

Still, she was curious, and Legs didn't seem moody, evasive, or pissed off yet, so Faith risked pushing a little harder.

"So when did you leave for forever? How old were you?"

Legs shrugged again, shifting her weight slightly, rubbing a stand of Faith's hair between her fingers slowly and glancing at her only briefly and casually as she answered.

"Not sure…I guess I was maybe fifteen. You kind of lose track of time after a while, you ought to know that."

Still fingering Faith's hair, she shifted the topic. "Considering the shitty gym shampoo we have to work with and the way we're always out in the weather like this, you have some damn nice hair, Faith, you know that? It's soft."

Faith smiled, momentarily flattered and distracted, as Legs had probably intended, by the compliment. But as silence resumed between them her mind returned quickly to her previous track of thought, and she turned to Legs slowly, psyching herself up to ask the other girl yet another question.

"Legs? Do you ever want to go back?"

"No," Legs said with a measured and very certain tone, her eyes meeting and holding Faith's for several moments, her hand suddenly stiff and heavy in the other girl's hair as she made it quite clear without saying so aloud that she would be giving no further details. "No, I don't."

"Me either," Faith said quietly, her eyes drifting down to stare at the slushy patches of melting snow dotting the ground under their feet. She unconsciously began to swing her feet again, matching the slow rhythm of Legs's, and it was another few minutes before she spoke.

"Do you think you'll live like this forever, Legs? Out here…free?"

"Who knows?" Legs said carelessly, shaking her head, and she shrugged again as she turned her head towards Faith, finally extracting her hand from her hair. "I don't worry about anything past today. Hell, I don't even worry about today, or anything past this very second. For all I know I could fall off these bars in the next minute, hit my head on the way down, crack my skull apart, and bleed to death before anyone could do shit for me. I don't know if that will happen or not, though, so what's the point in worrying if I don't know?"

"You aren't gonna fall off the monkey bars and die, Legs," Faith said, rolling her eyes, but Legs countered her with a grin.

"Well we don't know that yet, do we? Point is that I could."

"What, are you trying to say you don't care if you die?" Faith said with some incredulity and also a little concern. But Legs shook her head again as she playfully bumped her shoulder against Faith's.

"No, babe, I want to live as much as the next person. Probably more in a lot of cases. But I'm not afraid to die either. It's a new change of scenery is all. And you know me…I always get bored with having the same thing."

"Oh, you gonna get bored of me too then?" Faith smirked, arching an eyebrow, but despite her mocking tone, she felt genuine fear twist itself in her heart. "This your way of breaking up with me?"

Legs grinned, her eyebrow lifting to mirror Faith's.

"Not as long as you keep my interest. You're doing pretty good so far."

"You know you want me, you don't' have to be shy," Faith needled back, nudging Legs in the same manner that the girl had her, relief settling inside her as her eyes glinted with enjoyment at this bantering. "Just so you know, girlfriend…you die on me and I kick your ass to the North Pole."

"You want to lick my dead ass?" Legs smirked, her tone mock shocked as she widened her eyes, deliberately pretending to have misheard Faith's words. "Why, Faith, I had no idea that you were such a filthy necrophile."

"What, you rather me bite it?" Faith grinned, and Legs smiled back widely, eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Oh, you know it, babe…"

Leaning forward, she lightly nipped the side of Faith's neck. When Faith gasped, eyes wide, an instinctive thrill shooting through her core at Leg's proximity, Legs drew back slightly, quickly licking the tip of Faith's nose as well. Jumping off of the monkey bars and landing gracefully on her feet, Legs beamed up at her, shouting for her to catch her as she took off towards the park entrance. Leaping down after her, Faith gave chase, long hair streaming behind her and tangling with her movements. She laughed, dimples cutting into her cheeks as she tore after Legs.

Legs was right. She couldn't worry about the future, or any other day. She couldn't even worry about death. All that mattered was this moment, and in this moment, Faith wanted to catch Legs, throw her down, and return the favor of her displays of teasing affection.

Mid 1998

Faith shook herself slightly, refocusing her attention on the alley street before her as she continued to walk, finishing out her patrol. It had been a slow night so far. She hadn't dusted anything at all, or even seen anything slay-worthy, and her mind was drifting badly from the lack of stimulation. That must have been why she'd started thinking again about the dream she'd had the night before- there wasn't' enough going on.

The dream had been kind of weird- not the events of it so much as because it wasn't really a dream at all, but rather a memory. Faith hadn't thought about that time with Legs in the park past the day that it had occurred. Really, she rarely thought about Legs at all anymore, and wouldn't have been surprised if the older girl would no longer recognize her for the person she was compared to the person Legs had known. But Faith knew that the dream had occurred in reality, that what she had seen in her sleep had actually happened some eighteen months ago.

So what was the point of dreaming or remembering it now, when it hadn't even been worth remembering then? What the hell was the big deal with that?

Whatever…since it was so slow tonight, maybe she'd just go home. There wasn't much point in walking around all night if all the bad guys were in hiding.

It had been a rather typical day for Faith, less exciting than usual, even, since she hadn't gotten to slay. Training, school, all the usual routine, except for the slightly weird dream-that-was-once-reality, there was nothing out of ordinary. Diana's words to Faith to be careful as she had left to patrol had been entirely unnecessary since it seemed that nothing out there wanted to put Faith at risk tonight.

Yeah, she might as well just go home…must be vampire veteran day or something.

Faith took her time about making her way back home, hoping to come across a vampire or something along those lines on her way that she could slay, but there was no such luck. She was disappointed as she ambled up the driveway of Diana's and her home, almost hoping that something would jump out onto the porch or from behind a tree to misdirect her from the path.

It wasn't until Faith had reached the front door and was starting to open it that she first felt the apprehension come over her, a strong dread settling against her chest and closing over her heart, stirring her stomach. Faith's hand froze on the doorknob, and she jerked her head around, looking around herself quickly to see if maybe there was something there after all. But no, she saw and heard nothing…and as she turned her head back toward the doorway, she was impressed with the feeling that it was not what lay behind her but rather what lay ahead of her that was invoking fear.

No…was Diana sick or hurt? Was something wrong with Diana? It couldn't be a vampire…Faith had never, to Diana's consternation, developed a sixth sense to just "sense" vampires, not yet anyway, and besides, they couldn't just come in a home without being invited in. And Diana wouldn't have invited a vampire in, she was too smart for that…wasn't she?

Shoving open the door abruptly, Faith came inside the building deliberately making quite a lot of noise, stake clutched tightly in her hand as she made her way into the kitchen, calling out to her Watcher and hoping for a calm, reassuring reply that would set her at ease.

"Di? Di, I'm home!"

There was no response. There was always a response. Couldn't Diana hear her? Couldn't she call back? Her mind stumbling over itself with an onslaught of renewed anxiety, her heart beating too rapidly now for her comfort, Faith called out again, almost yelling.

"Diana? Diana, where are you, I'm home!"

There was no response, and Diana was not in the kitchen…nor, as Faith quickly discovered, was she in the living room. This was more than enough to cause Faith to start to panic. Where was she, why wasn't she answering her back? Diana was always there waiting for her when she came home from slaying. She was never out. She was never asleep. She was never not THERE, she was always THERE, so where was she, why wasn't she here?

Okay, calm down, loser, Faith tried to tell herself, even as her knuckles whitened around the stake in her hand, her lips thinning, and she felt sick and shaky inside, as if she might faint or vomit. Cool it. She's probably in the bathroom, or maybe doing laundry or something, or she's on the porch in the back and doesn't hear you. Or maybe she was really tired or doesn't feel good and she did go to sleep, so what? You're a big girl, you don't need to have her waiting up for you ever night anyway, chill out.

Or maybe something was really wrong. That's what Faith couldn't help thinking and feeling, and that was what set her off to running down the halls, opening and closing doors and yelling Diana's name as fear fluttered inside her heart.

"Diana! Diana, where are you, come on!"

She hoped that she would hear Diana calling back to her with irritation, telling her to lower her voice and stop running around like a chicken with her head cut off, that she was perfectly all right. She hoped that she could hug Diana hard and then draw away, flushed and embarrassed. She hoped she would watch Diana's eyes soften as she touched her cheek, telling her with affection as much as exasperation what a silly girl she was and that she needed to wind down before bed. Faith wanted this more than anything she had ever wanted in her life up to this point.

But each room she thrust her head inside did not yield her Watcher's form, and no voice but her own echoed back to her. Diana was gone…Diana simply was not there.

It was in her own room, propped up on her pillow, that Faith found the note, written on a torn page from her journal. The message was written in block letters, as if someone or something were attempting to disguise its penmanship, and it was unsigned.

"Slayer: 837 Callway Road. See you there."

That was all. Faith stared at it for several moments, the writing blurring in her gaze, and she could feel her head pounding in rapid rhythm with her heartbeat, her stomach twisting so sharply that she could barely remain standing. The hand holding the note shook, almost tearing it.

They had her…something, someone had Diana, somehow something had Diana. They could have hurt her, they could be hurting her right now…they could be…

Faith didn't let herself finish the thought. She couldn't bear to. Gathering a few more stakes and her best, sharpest knife, she flew downstairs and out the door, running faster and with more urgency than she could ever remember doing so before.

This couldn't happen…she wouldn't let this happen. This would not, this WOULD NOT HAPPEN, not to her. Not to Diana.