Chapter 20

The house was quiet when Faith entered the kitchen. Xander's car was also noticeably absent from the curb and the lights were all out downstairs. Faith went to the fridge to pour a glass of cold milk and took small sips standing at the kitchen window staring out into the dark back yard.

She was tired and wanted to crawl into bed, her nerves were tight and her head still reeling at the sudden arrival of Angel; but Spike didn't have a key to let himself in and Faith didn't feel right in going up to bed with the door unlocked.

Yawning, Faith left the kitchen and wandered into the hallway. She was startled to hear the rustling of clothes and the padding of bare feet above her; Dawn appeared on the stairs her hands gripping the railing as she leant over and looked down into Faith's face.

"Shouldn't you be in bed? You've got school in the morning."

"I was waiting for you," Dawn said coming to stand on the bottom step.

"Where's Tara?"

"In her room."

Faith noted that Dawn didn't say Tara was asleep, merely that she was in her room. She supposed Tara would have a restless night tonight and Faith couldn't help wondering if Spike would too, if he had gone to Angel's in the hope of seeing Willow.

"You should be in bed too," Faith said rubbing at her eye with the heel of her hand. "Surely whatever you want to say could wait until the morning."

"Where's Spike?" Dawn leant forward and peered into the kitchen.

"Out."

Dawn's eyes widened and a slight hint of panic coloured her voice. "Out where?"

"I don't know, just out. He doesn't have to tell us every move he makes and that's probably for the best. I don't think we want to know half of what someone like Spike gets up to."

"But he's coming back, isn't he?" Dawn persisted.

Faith frowned in surprise. "Of course he is. Why wouldn't he come back?"

Dawn didn't answer, instead she looked hard at Faith as though she were searching for something in her face. "Do you like Spike?"

"I suppose so." Faith took another sip of her milk. She didn't know Spike all that well, he mostly kept himself to himself, the one time she was really alone with him was during the drive from L.A when Willow slept in the back of the car. They had traded some stories but neither of them had really revealed anything too personal. From what she had seen of Spike he seemed alright, especially now that he had the chip to keep him in check.

"Are you going to send him away?" Dawn demanded, her fingers gripping tighter to the railing.

"Send him away? No, why would I do that?" Faith looked blankly at Dawn who was staring anxiously down at her. Faith knew that Dawn liked Spike, she got on really well with him her crush on him aside. She didn't know what had suddenly motivated Dawn to think that she would kick Spike out, he had only just moved in.

"You won't make Spike leave?"

"No," Faith shook her head. "Why would I make him leave?" Faith figured she could understand why Dawn would be afraid to lose Spike, yet another person she cared about gone from her life like Buffy, Joyce and Giles before him; but she didn't understand why Dawn thought she would be the one to initiate that loss.

Because Angel didn't like Spike and clearly thought him living with them all was a bad idea, but Dawn didn't tell Faith that. She wasn't totally convinced that Faith wouldn't change her mind and go along with Angel, they were friends after all.

"I just thought you might," Dawn said quietly.

"Well I won't."

"Promise?"

Faith's eyebrows lifted as she nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I promise." It was a step forward surely, that Dawn had asked for a promise from her.

"No matter what?"

"No matter what," Faith agreed. She decided against telling Dawn that she had made a deal with Spike and he would be staying anyway, she thought it would be better for her relationship with Dawn if Dawn thought she was doing her a favour.

Dawn nodded, a look of relief crossing her face. A promise was a promise, Faith liked Spike and so did Willow. Dawn felt that she had done all she could to ensure Spike stayed in the basement in spite of Angel. Angel could stick that in his pipe and smoke it.

"You'd better go to bed, you've got school in the morning, kid."

Dawn turned and walked slowly back up the stairs. "G'night," she said when she reached the top and turned the corner.

"Night," Faith replied a note of surprise in her tone. She sighed softly and went to sit in the family room until Spike returned.

She tried not to think about Angel but somehow the more she told herself not to think about him the stronger his presence was in her mind. Everything she thought and felt towards Angel was a problem and screamed of pain and heartache; how could it not?

Angel had been the one constant on her mind during her incarceration. She thought about herself, about everything she had done and those she had hurt, but it was Angel who was the constant. Whenever she felt her temper rise and begin to spin out of control she would picture his face, recall how he had put himself between her and Buffy, chosen to help and guide her no matter what Buffy said.

Buffy had travelled to L.A to kill her, Faith knew that and Angel had shielded her. He had stood between her and the woman he loved.

Faith closed her eyes and took a steadying breath, the woman he loved; it was not her it was Buffy. Buffy Summers who was the total opposite to her in every way; she was the woman Angel loved. A vampire in love with a vampire slayer. A vampire with a soul who loved the slayer so much that one night with her had given him pure happiness and he had lost his soul.

She swallowed and rubbed absently at her aching throat; how was she meant to compete with that?

XxXxX

Spike ate up the sidewalk with long, angry and purposeful strides, the night was fading fast and he didn't have long to reach the house and his own bed in the basement. It was nice to think of living in a house again, the basement didn't bother him not after the crypt; besides, Spike had lived in far worse places in his time than a crypt.

He hadn't lived with humans before though and he found he had enjoyed his first night there, not just because Willow had come to see him, to feed him and kiss him senseless; but because he had felt for the first time in a long time as though he was wanted.

His feeling of contentment hadn't lasted long, Angel had blown that right out of the water, but then Spike had been left feeling elated when Willow had followed him to the crypt and given herself to him so completely.

That elation had sustained him when he had been forced to watch Willow walk off with Angel knowing she was going to pack up and move in with him. It had sustained him during his walk to the Crawford Street mansion a place where he had been subjected to pain and humiliation at the hands of Angelus.

Then he had seen it, standing in the garden he had seen Angel in the same bedroom as Willow. He had seen him stand close to her, looking out of the window with her and that familiar lingering hand on her back was seared into Spike's mind.

Spike growled through his fangs. Angel was just trying to upset him, just trying to get him to do something stupid and make himself look foolish, but still Spike couldn't push the jealous thoughts from his mind. Spike could recognise from experience his own insecurities at work but he couldn't seem to stop himself.

He let himself into the house and went to the family room where a table lamp was burning. He found the slayer slumped on the sofa her head drooping to one side, her eyes closed. Spike stared at her for a long moment and Faith stirred.

Feeling another presence in the room, a dangerous presence, Faith came awake, her movements slow and sluggish. She blinked, bleary eyes focusing in on Spike. "You're back."

"Yeah. Thought everyone would be in bed at this time."

"I didn't feel it would be safe going to bed and leaving the door unlocked. You don't have a key," she said by way of explanation when Spike merely looked blankly at her.

"You waited up for me?" Spike's eyebrows lifted in surprise.

"I tried," Faith said wryly as she pushed herself to her feet and stretched out her back. "Can you lock the door, I'm going to bed now."

"Yeah sure." Spike stood to the side to let her pass.

She was an endless source of surprises this slayer. Spike certainly hadn't expected to return to find her waiting for him. Chubbs and the other slayer would have locked him out. The more he saw of her the more Spike was able to see and understand Angel's turbulent relationship with her, why he was so willing to take her side and help her.

If his idiotic grandsire was going to fall for a slayer Spike couldn't see why it wasn't this one with her fire and defiance right out in the open for anyone to see and her darkness beneath the surface. Spike wasn't totally sure that Angel hadn't fallen for her, it would explain his fascination with her. Angel would probably deny any attraction to Faith and cling to his doomed and ridiculous love for Buffy to the last.

He watched Faith go up the stairs and disappear into the shadows; it would be interesting and extremely amusing to watch Angel battle with himself around this woman, this woman who was a slayer, this woman who was Spike's friend.

Spike tested that out in his mind once or twice; Spike, William the Bloody, Slayer of Slayers friends with a slayer; with Angel's slayer.

His lips curled upwards into a smirk, what a delicious thought.