Author's Notes: Wow, people really don't like Faith? I'm kinda shocked. Ok so I'm not… but I plan on her being around for awhile. Kendra, nah, I really didn't like her. She was a pathetic stereotype that kinda got on my nerves just a little, was it noticeable? Hehe, anyway, don't worry. This Faith is going to be a lot different, not major, but important difference. Remember Faith of the Buffyverse was lonely, angry and jealous. What happens to her when she has no reason to be? This is what happens…. Also I was thinking of going into how the characters all first meet one another, such as Angel and Doyle meeting Buffy for the first time, and then those three meeting Cordelia, Willow and Xander and so on, with the exception of Spike and Tara, I've only briefly hinted at how they all met up. So what do ya'll think? Should that be a separate story or should I just devote like three chapters of this story to it? Either way I'm working on it as we speak so let me know how you think it should go and I'll go with that! Also there is a note about something I know is either going to confuse or annoy people at the bottom. Okay, so ciao out for now!

Chapter Fourteen

 "Buffy, you okay? I mean you've been really distant all summer," Riley wheezed as he jogged trailing behind the petite blonde he called a girlfriend. He had to use every bit of his long legs to keep up with the brisk pace the Slayer was keeping on patrol. It was late August, only one more week and then the whole gang would all be back and she could finally have some peace. It was a mantra that she kept going through her head. And she swore the next time anyone suggested doing anything that involved them leaving town for more than a day and not taking her with them, she would kill them, she really would. Things were not looking good for Riley and Buffy. The more he talked, the more annoyed she grew. She was finally seeing Riley the way her friends saw him. She had thought that her guy friends were pulling an overprotective brother act when they showed their obvious dislike for the boy. Now she knew that it was because he was close minded and hated them based on what they were, rather than who they were. The only peace she got was when he was off at orientation.

His ROTC training had been going rather well according to him, and she was glad. Anything to keep him busy and occupying his time that didn't involve her was a great thing. He was even being inducted into a fraternity. He had proudly told her that he was the youngest frat brother they had in the fraternity's history. Once again warning bells started to go off in her head but she shook it off. It's a fraternity, what could they possibly be doing besides having really bad keg parties. Besides Buffy couldn't wait for him to be inducted in as a brother. Because that way she wouldn't have to deal with him anymore! She couldn't even escape him on patrol, despite her many attempts at doing so.

Suddenly the quiet of the night was shattered as she heard the sounds of a scuffle coming from the far reaches of the cemetery. Her slayer senses started to go crazy once again and she ran off in search of the person with two goals in mind, one to figure out who besides a vampire or Spike, could be causing such a reaction in her head and two, hoping she could lose Riley and his incessant questions. Buffy turned the corner and paused to regard the scene in front of her with shock. A brunette girl wearing high heeled boots, tight leather pants that Buffy was sure she had to be poured into that morning, fighting off a vampire, and winning. Buffy stood back impressed as the girl pulled a stake out of her pants leg and drove it straight into the vampire's chest. She stood upright as the vampire turned into dust. The girl flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder and smirked down at the dust almost as if she had received some kind of pleasure in the act of staking the vampire. Buffy then quietly approached her but the girl held up a hand keeping her back.

"So did you enjoy the show?" she asked archly.

"A little long and drawn out but it wasn't so bad," Buffy replied flippantly.

"You know, it's not nice to sneak up on people like that," the girl warned. She turned around to face Buffy now and that same satisfied smirk was still there. She cocked her head to the side regarding Buffy. "Especially a girl like me." Buffy could hardly suppress the snort that erupted from her. She had been hanging out with Spike entirely too much. This was especially obvious with the sarcastic retort that came next.

"Oh, I'm shaking but trust me I can handle myself. You were pretty good there with that guy."

"Oh, you mean the vampire?"

"You know what vampires are?"

"Obviously," the brunette retorted sarcastically. She sized Buffy up and seemed to not be overly threatened by her presence any more. The brunette placed the stake back in her boot and crossed her arms over her belly baring top. "I have to know about them. It's my job."

"What are you some kind of demon folklorist or something?" Buffy snorted. Then another thought occurred to her. "Oh, you're not another Watcher are you?" the girl looked confused and shook her head.

"No, not a Watcher," Buffy heaved a sigh of relief. "I am the Slayer, though."

Buffy's blood ran cold and she gaped at the girl in front of her. "But you can't be….I'm the…. You're the what?"

"The Slayer? I see the reputation precedes me. The name's Faith."

"No, no, no, this can't be right. I'm the Slayer. Me! Buffy! The Slayer."

"Buffy? The chick that died before the last Slayer? But I thought you were dead as in the permanently kind of dead." Faith paused for a moment, sizing her up again. She started to reach for the stake. "You're not undead are you?"

"Would I honestly answer that if I was?" Buffy huffed. "No I'm not undead! I'm alive! I was only dead for like five minutes tops!"

"That's all it takes, B. You died and another got called, and then she died and I got called. Nice to see you're not permanently dead, although this does put a very interesting twist on the whole one girl for every generation analogy."

"Nice to know the Council has such good files on all their girls," Buffy rolled her eyes. "Could they have let Giles in on this? What good is it having the head of the damn Council of Watchers in your friends' family if he can't even tell them when another Slayer gets called?" Riley finally made his way over to them panting and wheezing a moment later.

"Buff, what's going on?" he asked, putting an arm around her shoulders. She shrugged him off and moved away annoyed.

Faith raised an eyebrow. Buffy rolled her eyes again. "Faith, this is my boyfriend, Riley. Riley, meet the Slayer, Faith."

"Slayer?"

"Your boyfriend?"

Buffy managed to pull her thoughts together long enough to invite Faith back to her place. This sort of conversation was not best had in the middle of a graveyard where just any random weirdo walking by could overhear. Besides she needed to call Giles and give him all the information. He would know what to do. And then she was calling Angel. As soon as she walked through the front door with Faith in tow, she found herself bombarded with questions from both her kid sister and mother. Faith told them as much as she knew about her being called. It wasn't much. But she did know that there was a Slayer in between her and Buffy, one named Kendra. Kendra had only been called for a couple of months when she was slain by a Master female vampire who had been spewing nonsense left and right. It didn't take much for Buffy to conclude it was Drusilla.

It also didn't take much for her mother to warm to the lost slayer. And apparently it took less time for her sister to find a new idol in Faith. She was giving her the patented hero worship look that was reserved for the likes of Xander, Willow, Tara and Spike, and now apparently Faith. Buffy sat back in her seat a little put out by the fact that everyone seemed to forget she existed in the midst of it.

"It must be so sad to be a slayer all alone in this world," Joyce sighed giving the dark haired girl a sympathetic look. "Sometimes I don't think that Buffy knows how good she has it. At least she has friends and a watcher, oh but you poor thing," Joyce broke off giving another motherly look and then ushering Dawn to call for a pizza for dinner and then to get Faith some bed linens. It seemed that the girl would be staying with them for the time being. Before Buffy could even question aloud just where they thought she was staying, her bedroom was being offered up. Her mother then took Faith upstairs to get her situated leaving Riley and Buffy alone in the dining room. It was then that she noticed the overly excited glimmer in Riley's eyes. He pulled her to him and hugged her as if they had just been given a million dollars.

"What?" she asked tiredly. At the moment she just wasn't seeing what he was so damn happy for. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him moodily. In the span of an hour she just found out that the role that she thought was for her and her alone was suddenly someone else's as well. And now not only was she sharing this job with someone else, she was also sharing her room, mother and sister! There was no possible way any good could be coming out of this. "What?" she snapped again. Riley looked at her as if she had a second head.

"Don't you get it? You've been given an out. You're done as the Slayer. For some reason she was drawn to the Hellmouth. With Angel, Spike and all the rest of them helping her there is no reason why there would need to be two Slayers here.  You can finally retire and be a normal girl! You can stop hanging out with witches, demons and vampires."

Part of Buffy was clinging to the idea. The part of Buffy that always wanted to be a regular girl but that part of Buffy was also dead. She had accepted along time ago that she would never be normal and in fact had long since embraced it. She knew too much about the way the world worked. Maybe if she had had a conventional watcher she would have longed for the human world, but she had been trained a by a vampire and a half demon.

She had been exposed to the demon world in a less hostile way and found that she enjoyed being able to know both worlds. She was one of the lucky few. And if she quit now and became what she once was that would mean turning her back on Angel and Doyle, who had been her loyal friends since the very beginning, her mentors. In the process she would loose Cordelia because the cheerleader went nowhere without the two of them. She would also be leaving behind Willow and Tara, which was also just unacceptable in her mind. Xander would stick by them all. And then there was Spike. There was no way in hell she was ever going to be able to walk away from him. In the end being normal just wasn't worth what she would have to give up and she said as much to Riley.

"But Buffy, think about. We could finally be happy together. No jealousy about Spike or anyone coming between us," Riley was cut off by the phone ringing. Buffy was extremely grateful to whoever it was. At that point it could have been a telemarketer and she probably would have burst into a song of happiness. But it wasn't. It was Spike and that just made her ready to break down into tears of grateful happiness.

"Hey there, luv," Buffy grinned imagining his face as he spoke. It was eerie how perfectly she could see him in her mind.

"You finally got a phone again, huh?"

Early into their vacation Giles learned that with three teenagers and one phone, chaos would ensue. So to ensure that things would go smoothly amongst the lot of them, he pulled the plug on the phone. Of course the part of his plan that he didn't think through very carefully was that now they would turn on him. And turn they did until Jenny, fearing for her boyfriend's safety, bought a new phone.

"Shh, it's Jenny's," he laughed softly. "She smuggled it in as contraband and Xander discovered it the other day."

"Let me guess Tara already commandeered it to make a thousand phone calls to Willow huh?"

"I will tell no tales about my lovely sister."

"She is in the room isn't she?" Spike started to laugh again. The tension she felt melted away as she listened to the familiar sound. It was slowly becoming clear to her that the reason she felt so incredibly uptight that summer was that she missed talking to him. She missed him. "I miss you," she admitted. "I really, really miss you."

"I miss you too, pet. But there is a reason I am calling you." Suddenly the joking tone was gone and he was very serious.

Buffy felt a pit grow in her stomach. "What? You can't just call because I'm your best friend and you miss me?"

"Well I could but that isn't me and you know it. I'm calling because there is a slight change in plans," he paused and the pit grew bigger. "We're not coming home next week like we had originally planned. Something came up."

Buffy felt the pit grow and extend to every cell of her body. He wasn't coming back. She would have to wait longer to see him. Longer without Spike to help her make sense of the world. Tears were starting to form in her eyes unwillingly and she stepped away before Riley could see them and wonder what was wrong. "What do you mean you're not coming home next week? We had plans! I miss you. I'm going crazy without you here. I need you here." She knew she was whining but she just couldn't help it. The doorbell rang and she groaned in frustration. What a time for the pizza delivery man to show up. "Hold on, mom ordered a pizza and the guy just showed up."

She stalked over to the door and viciously flung it open, fully prepared to take her bad mood out on the poor delivery man. However that plan was put on hold by the sight of who was holding her pizza.

"Pepperoni, sausage, ham," Xander shook his head. "How do you stay so thin?"

"Fast metabolism," Spike shrugged. The pair was leaning against the doorframe on opposite sides. Xander was holding the two boxes of pizza and looking at them a bit hungrily. Spike was holding a cell phone in his hand and giving Buffy a sly grin at the same time. Behind them stood Tara, Willow, Giles, Cordelia, Doyle and Angel. Buffy's jaw dropped open in shock. "Hey there pet, you might want to order some more pizza."

"But how?" words seemed to be failing her at the moment.

"All I said was that we weren't coming back next week," he grinned wider. "Because we're coming back today. Surprised?"

"But how," she motioned with her hand towards the others.

"Angel picked us up on his way into town. And then we got Willow from camp. First stop was Casa de Summers."

Buffy felt the tears spill out of her eyes and she launched herself into Spike's very welcoming arms. He held her tightly and only let go when they both realized how uncomfortable for the others it must have been. She looked up at him with a dazzling smile before she pelted him with punches from her tiny fists.

"You jerk! You scared the hell out of me!"

"I'm sorry, luv. I couldn't resist. I had to freak you out like that." He pouted and batted his eyes. "Forgive me?"

Don't do the pouting thing!" she warned flicking his lower lip.

"Spike!" Buffy stepped out the way as a blur knocked into her friend. Spike chuckled and twirled the girl in his arms around. "You're back early!" Buffy watched them with a quick smile before moving off to greet her other friends. Seeing as Doyle had a smile on his face, which had been hard to come by that summer, Buffy gave him a hug first.

"Glad you're back to normal," she whispered in his ear. He pulled back and gave her a sad little smile. "Doyle?"

"I'm fine," his smile brightened a little. "Just really glad to be back around friends."

"Yeah," Buffy nodded and hugged him once more. Something was wrong. She could sense it, but what?

"Hey, hey, hey, best friend or not, you will not be macking on my man, Goldilocks!" Cordelia grinned as she threw her arms around Buffy.

"Finally the Scoobies are back and better than ever! This is the year where everything changes! Its senior year!" Xander practically yelled earning a smack on the back of the head from Giles. "Alright G-man! He's been doing that all summer!"

"And I've been telling you all summer not to call me that you little," Giles' retort was cut off as Buffy pushed him into the house.

Joyce, Riley and Faith all made their way into the hallway to see what the commotion was. By this point, Buffy had moved them all into the house. The Scoobies collectively groaned upon seeing Riley, smiled upon seeing Joyce and gawked upon seeing Faith. Buffy's eyes narrowed slightly as she noticed Spike's reaction to the barely there shirt and tight pants. It didn't help that beside him Xander was having a similar reaction.

"Wow, who is the new girl?"

"Xander," Buffy rolled her eyes tiredly. "Faith, these are the Scoobies and Giles, my Watcher," before Giles could even fully protest being called by his title, Buffy had waved a dismissive hand. "Guys, this is Faith, the slayer."

There was a heavy silence that was only punctuated by Giles removing his glasses and giving them a good cleaning. Spike clapped his father on the shoulder and leaned in closer. "That is exactly how I feel!"

 Giles sat in the darkened kitchen with the phone cradled underneath his chin. On the other line was probably the most important, powerful man in the supernatural world. He was the one that controlled the slayers, the head of the Watcher's Council, Quentin Travers. At the moment, however, he didn't sound very powerful, as a matter of fact he sounded rather annoyed. Giles though, was not the source of his annoyance. Rather it was the presence of Roger Wyndham Price. Roger and Giles had a sort of personal vendetta against one another that all started with a woman. It was safe to say there was no love lost between the two watchers or their children, but that is another story.

At the moment Giles simply wanted to know what he was to do with this slayer. She had thus far proven to be every bit as snappy and tough as Buffy, but now as she sat alone in the darkened dining room, Giles was starting to see through the act. She was scared and he didn't blame her. She had seen her mother figure slaughtered in front of her face by the very thing she was sworn to fight against and yet was too weak to do so. It had to be a crushing blow for someone who was so young, who was supposed to be so powerful. Right now as she sat with her legs drawn up to her chest in some of Buffy's borrowed clothes, she looked years younger than she really was.

"I'm not going to lie to you, mate, it was bad," Quentin was speaking and snapped Giles out of his reverie. "It was Kakistos, if you can believe."

Giles sat up straight in his seat. "This girl faced Kakistos and walked away unscarred?"

"I'm not necessarily sure she is unscarred. Weren't you the one that said not all scars have to be physical?"

Giles risked taking another look at the girl. "Does she have parents?"

"No, she was an orphan. Maggie was the only mother she's known and now," Quentin sighed. It was hard loosing a watcher, especially Margaret. She had grown up with his daughter. He had often times picked them up from school together and taken them to the park to play. But now she was also gone, leaving the harsh reality of age leaking in. Quentin sighed once more trying to ignore the insistent hand gestures that Roger was giving off. 

"What am I supposed to do, Quentin? Send her back there, no offense but…."

"I know, trust me, I know," he sent a pointed glare at the man in the seat opposite from him and turned away with the phone still tucked under his ear. "Rupert, I know you're a smart man, so I trust that you'll do the right thing here. Just remember this girl is lonely, and scared. Not unlike another girl we know who is just about her age right now. As she no parents, technically as she is a slayer, she is under the jurisdiction of the watcher's council until she becomes of age next year. That is unless she found some parents before then. I'll let you go work that out now."

And with that the connection to England was broken and Giles was left to sit in confusion. Sighing, he buried his face in his hands only lifting them when he heard footsteps and craned his neck to see Spike and Tara walking down the kitchen stairs.

They sat opposite from him in silence for a few minutes trying to gauge his mood. Finally tired of the silence, Spike spoke. "So what's deal on the new chit?"

"She is indeed the Slayer. Well a slayer. Her watcher was killed and the council has been looking for her for months. Of course telling me this while I was in bloody England would have just made too much sense."

"It's called a vacation, dad," Tara chided gently. "Grandfather probably didn't want to worry you too much. He probably thought you would freak out."

"Why on earth would he think that?"

"Because you're freaking out," Spike pointed out. He stepped away from the venomous glare being thrown his way. "So what are you going to do? What did the council say?"

"They of course want me to put her on a plane immediately and send her back to England. What Quentin suggested is however not along those lines, I think. But the immediate council response was to put her plane tomorrow."

Tara peered out the door and took a long look at the brunette. "Dad, you can't send her back there. She is just putting up a front. I can tell she is terrified right now. If you send her to the watcher's council, they will break her." Giles nodded and then looked to his son.

"What do you think, Will?"

"I think Glenda's right as usual. Those blokes don't know up from down half the time. They don't need to be messing with anyone's head. Besides they'll probably assign her to that giant git Roger Wyndham Price," Spike changed his usual cockney accent to that of a refined British upper crust accent, in other words he succeeded in making both his sister and father laugh. He has been begging for a slayer since we first heard about Buffy. And ugh that wanker son of his Weakley," Spike made a face. Tara made a similar face and nodded. "But its up to you, isn't it, dad? You really want to have two Slayers?"

"Its not my fondest wish, no," Giles sat back in his seat. "But I admit I would gladly take her before I ever let Roger take on a slayer. To him they are toys, pawns for the Council's biddings. As if he even knew what being a slayer entailed." Giles broke off shaking his head. It was then that what Quentin was suggesting became clear to him. He was slowly starting to understand it. "The Council is very much a business. They follow laws. A lot of times they try to make their own laws but they still have to adhere to many of the normal social laws. Such as if they want to control a slayer, as in deport her from this country. They would still need to have to go through her parents. If her parents were to say no or protest what was going on then they run the risk of drawing attention to their rather secret organization."

"But what about Faith? You said she doesn't have any parents. Does that mean she has to go?"

"Well that all depends on what you say to this next question." Spike and Tara exchanged wary glances.

"What's the question?" Tara asked hesitantly.

"What would you think of Faith coming to live with us? She could share a room with you Tara, until we could move Spike up to the attic like he always wanted."

"I'm all for it. I finally get the attic bedroom and well, I always wanted a sister," Spike cracked. Tara was thinking so it took a moment for her to catch on. She narrowed her eyes and smacked him on the arm. Giles rolled his eyes but nodded all the same. Spike leaned into his sister casually and smiled. "So Glenda this all rides on you. What say you fair sister?"

"I say I always wanted an intelligent sibling," Tara retorted, sharing the same silly grin they were both wearing. "So when are you going to tell her?"

Giles was already moving. He sat down next to the Slayer, who jumped up unexpectedly. She settled down and shot him an untrusting look. If Giles had any doubts about taking her in, they were squashed at that moment. The look she was giving him was too similar to the one he had seen on his own daughter's face after that terrible summer. It was Tara that Quentin was reminded of when he thought of Faith. Giles had promised himself he would never make anyone suffer something so horrific again if he had power to stop it. And he knew that what this girl had already gone though was bad enough. If he sent her to England there is no telling what would happen to her. He also knew that he had more than the power to stop this, he had the desire to. He wanted help her. He tried to give her a comforting smile but she remained as tense and poised to run as when he sat down.

"So I guess you're sending me to England, on the next flight, huh?"

"Well that depends. If you want, there is a family that would be very willing to take you in here in the States. There are some rules you will have to follow however."

"Rules?" Faith arched an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Like school. You are going to have to go to school everyday, for the most part. You are going to have to be in active training with Buffy everyday as well in the library after school," Faith's face fell with each rule. While England didn't seem too appealing, this was definitely not sounding all that hot either. She looked up and noticed the two blondes that seemed to follow the watcher around leaning in the doorway. She remembered that Buffy had introduced them as his kids. A watcher with children, it was definitely an odd concept. She then noticed that Giles was still smiling at her. "You will also have to make sure that you make sure to have fun and to make friends. You will have to be happy, young and carefree. And of course break tons of rules and be as ridiculously silly as your surrogate siblings."

"Who's the family?" Faith asked, a slow smile curving her lips, hope starting to bubble in her chest. Something told her this might be even better than running away.

"Me."

Faith's face lit up as she caught Spike and Tara giving her encouraging smiles. "Well then I think we have a deal." She laughed softly. The twins were in the room in an instant both bombarding her with information and happy smiles. Giles stood back for a second watching them all with pride. She wasn't his daughter, but Buffy appeared only a few minutes later and regarded the scene with obvious curiosity.

"So what's up, Giles? When we sending her back?"

"We're not," Giles missed the look that flashed across the blonde slayer's face. "She's staying. It's not like the Hellmouth couldn't use the extra protection and if I sent her back there, the possibilities of her turning rouge or worse are far too great. I think it's better if we keep her right here in Sunnydale."

"Great, you really expect me to share my room for that long?"

"No worries, pet," Spike approached the pair, putting his hands on her shoulders. "She is staying with us."

"Whoa for a minute there I thought you said she was staying with you," Buffy laughed. Spike arched an eyebrow and nodded.

"I did say that. She is boarding with Glenda for now, figure I'll move up to the attic like I always wanted and she can have my own room. It'll be like she is a bonafide Scooby in no time," Spike smiled over Faith. The slayer, somehow sensing his look, sent him a tentative smile. Tara leaned over and whispered something that caused the smile to widen. Spike narrowed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at both girls. They merely rolled their eyes and resumed their conversation. Spike then looked back at Buffy. The blonde was wearing a particularly nasty look and he for once had no idea as to why. "Is something wrong, pet?"

"No, everything is perfect!" Buffy replied with a bittersweet tone. "Everything is perfect." Except for the fact that in the course of one night, this girl has stolen my job, my friends and now… my Spike! Buffy narrowed her eyes and glared at the brunette slayer, somehow or another that girl was going down!

*Alright now I know what you're all thinking, but I said it was AU!! Alright so here is the explanation. Yes, I changed it from earlier. Now Spike and Tara are Quentin's grandchildren. Not too bad of a change but it also helps me later on in the story. Now Roger and Giles don't get along because Giles was rebelling against becoming a watcher, whereas Roger wanted it. Giles' best friend also happens to be another son of a watcher, Ethan Rayne Travers. Ethan and Helene (Giles' wife) are the children of Quentin. This is why Spike and Tara are allowed to be so involved in their father's job, because they are basically the little brats of the council, hehe. Watch for this later when I introduce Wesley, who definitely is not a big fan of either twin, especially Spike! Don't worry. Faith is not going to be a little docile thing in this story either. She'll have her moments. She isn't going to start referring to Giles as dad either. It was just a way to keep her in the story and not floating around. Ok I'm done explaining myself for now. I'm outta here for the weekend. So happy weekend, I'm seeing Matchbox 20 tonight, so go me! I don't have a preview for next chapter! Sorry! But it all depends on how you answer the question in the notes above. So yah! Byeee!