"Have you heard from her yet?" Xander glanced at Willow, pacing the floor.
"No, not yet." Willow's eyes followed her friend's movement. "Xander, um...please stop pacing. You're making me nervous."
"I'm sorry Will. I just don't like it that Buffy has been gone half the night and we haven't heard a thing from either her or Faith. Makes me wonder if she's...well, you know."
"Xander Harris, don't you dare say such things!" Xander blinked at the outburst. "I-I'm sorry Xan. It's just...I'm worried about Buffy too. And well, being stressed isn't going to help us."
"We can't just stand here and do nothing. What if she's hurt? Or like I mentioned before, she's...you know."
"Agreed. But...Buffy's been on lots of missions with Faith before. I'm sure they're fine."
Xander scoffed. "Oh yeah, because doing things with Faith is perfectly safe. You might as well take a rattlesnake with you on missions. I'm telling you Will; Faith? She's bad news. She's-" his tirade was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Trouble Will. That girl? Nothing but troub-hi Faith!" He faked sincerity as he answered the door. "So...Faith, what are you doing here? To what do we owe the pleasure of this unexpected call?"
She glared at him. "Shut-up Xander. I know you don't like me, so you can just cut the pretending to be nice. I'm not stupid." She side-stepped him to get into the house, motioning behind her. "Oh, by the way, that stupid bleach blonde vampire was stalking around outside. I staked him." She held up her stake in triumph. "He had it coming."
Willow's jaw dropped. "You staked Spike? But-"
"No time for that. Look Red, I need a favor. It's-"
"Favor? Favor?" Xander slammed the door shut, wheeling around to face the brunette slayer. "Why should we do you a favor? All you've ever done is make our lives a living he-"
"It's about Buffy."
"I'm listening."
Faith smirked. "Yeah. Thought that might shut you up." She turned back to Willow. "Anyway Red, we need the help of you, him..." she pointed to Xander, "and the rest of the crew you usually hang around with. What do you guys call yourselves?"
"The Scoobies," Xander replied flatly.
"Right. You and the 'Scoobs' need to get over to the hotel where Angel and the rest of his friends are."
"But why?" Willow asked. "Fatih, what happened? Where's Buffy?"
Faith's usually hard exterior softened for a moment. "She was captured by the Dollhouse. We were inside attempting to rescue Angel and got caught by security. This woman, DeWitt, told us what the Dollhouse was, that they're supposedly good and that Angel signed himself over to them."
"What?"
Faith sighed. "Angel signed a contract with them. The same contract DeWitt tried to get me to sign years ago when I was locked in the penitentiary serving time. They have the ability to take away whatever pain you're experiencing for five years. After the five years, you get paid a large sum of money and they release you from service. Angel decided the weight of his past crimes was to much to bear, so he signed himself over. When we saw him, he had been 'imprinted,' or whatever it was they called it. He didn't want to go with Buffy and the Dollhouse people tried to take him away."
She put a hand over her mouth, fighting back tears. "Just as they were leading Angel away, Buffy asked to take his place. Her life for his. I told her not to do it, that it was crazy, but she said it was something she had to do and that we could save her. I don't know how she thinks I-we-can save her, but...I promised her I would save her." Faith finally broke down, letting the tears fall. "It was like she was dying. In a weird way, she was, but in another way, she wasn't. They wouldn't let us see what they did to her. They ushered us out of the room before we had a chance to see."
"Oh Faith." Willow sat down next to the distraught girl, letting her hand hover over the girl before tentatively resting it on the slayer's shoulder. "We'll-we'll get her out Faith. If-if Buffy says we can get her out, then there must be a way." She smiled wryly. "She's died enough times. I bet this is nothing." Faith nodded.
"Look Faith, is there anything else Buffy said or did that would give us some kind of clue?" Xander asked. "Behavior, saying things that didn't seem to make sense..."
Faith wiped her eyes. "She kept talking about a treatment room. The place where they took Angel. It's like she knew what it was before we even set foot in there. She also seemed incredibly disoriented at one point. She kept talking about being back."
"Back?" Willow echoed. "Did-did she say where she was back from?"
Faith shook her head. "No. I just assumed she had suddenly gone crazy. Hit her head or something. I didn't think it meant anything."
"Okay. Well...no problem then. We can figure this out. Maybe-maybe it was a time rip or manipulation or something. Have you talked to Angel's friends?"
"Yeah. Angel and I went back to Angel Investigations and made a plan on how to break into the Dollhouse. You gave Buffy some blueprints and it looks as though there's some sort of hatch on top of the parking garage that leads into the building. We had finished planning and were getting ready to select weapons when they told me to come get you and the rest of the Scoobies. They said it would be better if we had back-up."
"That's a good idea. Are they still there, you think?"
"They'd better be."
"Here. I'll call them." Willow leaned sideways, grabbing her smart phone off the table. She hit the contact list, scrolling through until she found Angel's number. She smiled at Faith. "Smart phones. Best invention ever created-yes, Angel. Hi! It's-it's Willow. What? Yes, we have Faith with us. She told us what happened. Um...are you guys still there? Because, well, since you guys have a much more impressive weapons arsenal than we do, we thought we would just meet you there." She was quiet for a moment, listening. "Uh-huh. Yeah. We'll be there in five. Thanks. Bye."
"I take it we're leaving for Angel Investigations now?" Xander asked, digging his keys out of his back pocket.
"Yep. Start the car Xan; we'll be out in a few seconds."
"Okay." Xander twirled the keys around his finger, walking out the door.
"You ready to go Faith? Because, well, you know, evil never really sleeps." She forced a grin as she stood up, offering Faith a hand.
Faith took the offered hand, hauling herself up. "Thanks."
"Hey, no problem." She smiled genuinely this time. "Always glad to help." She followed Faith out the door, looking at her smart phone. "And while Xander is driving, I'll call the rest of the Scoobies and tell them to meet us at Angel Investigations headquarters."