A/N: Super long chapter 'cause I made y'all wait. Feedback keeps me going!

"Me!? I'm not doing—wait, did you say 'husband'?" To Riley. "Did she say 'husband'?"

A flicker of guilt passed over his face, but in a flash it was gone, filled in by the social teaching that led him to nod and introduce the brunette. "Husband. And wife. Buffy, meet Sam. Sam, Buffy."

Sam gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Pleasure."

Buffy looked over Sam's shoulder. "Demon."

The Suvolte demon wasn't waiting for an introduction and came at them with a roar. The blonde slayer moved to intercept it, only to be preempted by a brown ponytail that stepped in front of her.

Sam's smile grew steely. "Mine." And, with that, the brunette was off and running into the fight.

Buffy raised her eyebrows at that, looking over at Riley, forcing a chipper note into her voice. "Well, isn't she just a go-getter!"

He shrugged, smiling a little helplessly. "She does that."

Buffy watched the woman fight, using several martial arts moves that the blonde recognized from Riley's military training. She itched to get in there herself, but that somehow seemed disrespectful when Sam was holding her own. Running a tongue over the tip of one incisor, Buffy found it slightly extended still. She stayed in the shadows next to the wall. Riley was married? It was still a question. Had he not been flirting with her earlier? Had she completely misread that? Why hadn't he told her? "So, you guys do the fighting thing together?"

"Yep. That's how we met actually."

They both watched Sam dart in to land careful blows that kept the demon back. "Right." How did either of them meet anyone if it didn't involve combat? Buffy wondered what that said about them. The couple that fights together, stays together? She knit her brow, thinking that somehow that wasn't the way that phrase was supposed to go, and yet....

He saw the look and misinterpreted it. "We fought together, too, Buffy."

She kept her eyes on Sam. "Yeah, and look how well that worked out." And then realized what she'd said, turning to catch Riley's hurt look. "Except, you know, I'm sure you guys will work out great...lots of happiness...you seem happy!"

"We are."

"Good."

"You should be happy, too."

"Oh, this is me happy. Happy Buffy."

"That wasn't very convincing."

"Sorry. Once more, with feeling: Happy Buffy. The hills are alive." One corner of her mouth twitched upwards at her own private joke.

Riley's forehead creased in confusion, watching that sly smile on her shadowed face. The mane of blonde hair she'd refused to tie back was like a beacon in the darkness next to the dam. Clearly against regulations. "Are you seeing anyone?"

She looked over at him sharply, raising an eyebrow. "I'll ignore the obvious parallel you are making between me being happy and me being with someone."

"Which didn't answer my question."

She paused. "It's complicated." She closed her eyes, seeing the dark slayer's brown eyes looking back at her. She opened them and Faith was gone. She looked around for a way out of this conversation. "Um...should we...?" Gesturing in the direction of the pair fighting.

"No need. She's actually quite good. I almost feel sorry for the Suvolte." As he spoke, Buffy could see the blow coming before it landed, knocking Sam to the ground. "But not quite."

Riley moved in, but was passed up by the blonde slayer, grateful to have something easy to deal with. She landed a punch to the demon's gut, seeing its arm come up to backhand her, not in time to miss it, but in time to roll with the blow. She pushed off the wall and whirled into a backhand of her own. She could feel Sam's eyes calculating the superhuman force in the impact that sent the beast reeling back. Looking over, she caught the other woman's searching look. Buffy turned back to press her advantage with a roundhouse that snapped the demon's oblong head to one side.

It shook off the blow, sensing that this current opponent was more than it wanted to take on. It leapt instead for Riley.

"Hey, come back here! I wasn't finished!" Buffy lunged after it, catching a gray leg, which was enough to stop its forward progress and get her a kick in the face for her troubles.

Seeing Buffy dazed a little from the blow, her lip bleeding, Sam rushed in. "Please, allow me."

Buffy quickly stood up. "No, really, I'm okay." But she was one step behind the enthusiastic operative who kicked out at the demon and only managed a glancing blow as the Suvolte jerked to one side and reached out with its massive arm to grab Sam around the throat and hold her a little off the floor. Sam's eyes widened as Buffy, snarling, darted in, leaping to catch the demon with an arm around its neck, dragging it with her to the floor where it growled in fury as she worked to pin it and then, with a quick twist, snapped its neck.

She stood proudly over it. "My wedding gift to you. Many happy years and children and whatever."

"You killed it?" Riley looked pale.

"Oh...it's okay, honey." Sam laid a hand on his shoulder.

Buffy watched them, her moment draining away. Her tongue darted, nervously, out across the stinging cut on her lip. "No need for a 'thank you' card, really."

The brunette sighed, looking over at Buffy. Seeing the other girl's face, a flicker of confusion passed over her, but she shelved it for later. "Let me guess. Captain Can-Do here forgot to mention this was a homing operation."

"It was going to kill you!"

Riley rubbed a hand across his eyes. "It's my fault...I didn't explain."

Sam looked over at Riley, exasperated. "You recruit the slayer without filling her in on the objective?"

"There wasn't time to tell her!"

Sam shot him an eyebrow. "There was time to make sure she got the right clothes, but not to say two sentences?" Riley's look said he knew he wasn't going to win this argument. He watched his wife point at Buffy. "Slayers kill, Riley. That's what they do. You know that."

The blonde slayer blanched, running a hand across her face—to make sure. She looked over to find Sam's eyes on her. "I'd just like to add that we kill bad things that are about to kill other people, which is usually considered—" She was still standing, impotently, over the demon's carcass.

Riley cut her off, trying another approach with his wife. "The slayer—Buffy and I have fought together before. I thought we would be working together on this and that we would have it bagged by the time—"

"Without giving her the orders."

Buffy bristled. "Hey, I don't take orders!" Sam and Riley both looked at her. "I have a problem with authority. And I'm not in your club."

Sam looked none to pleased at that, grabbing a knife off of Riley's belt and coming towards the slayer with it. Buffy cocked an eyebrow at her, tensing, until the brunette bent down to slice open the demon's gut.

"Um...ew?" Buffy pointed at Sam while she looked at Riley. "Does she always do that?"

Sam spoke up before he had a chance to. "We're too late." By way of explanation for Buffy. "It's eggs are gone. Somewhere." Back to her husband with a sigh. "Agent Finn, if we weren't under severe time constraints, I'd seriously think about ripping you a new one."

Riley smirked at her. "Stand down, soldier."

Sam couldn't help but grin back as Buffy asked "He's your boss, too?"

The brunette kept her eyes on Riley for a moment. "Oh, he wishes." Then turning to the blonde slayer. "I hate to impose further, Buffy, but do you have a safe house where we can regroup?"

"We're not really the sort of organization that has safe houses. But I have a house house."

Riley moved to go. "I know where it is." Sam looked once between Riley and Buffy and then started to head back for the car.

"Can you...um...."

Riley turned from the passenger side to look into the backseat, where the pale blonde was watching the night sky. "Buffy?"

"Can you drop me off?"

"Drop you off? Why? Where?" He turned back around to scowl at Sam, who was slowing the car down. "I thought we were going to your house. I thought we would get a chance to catch up."

Buffy ignored the last part of that. "You are going to my house. I'd like you to drop me off first, though."

"Buffy, what—?"

Sam put her hand on Riley's arm. "Maybe it's better. We'll need to formulate a plan to find the eggs and we don't need Buffy for—" She had pulled over to the curb.

Adamant. "Buffy's going with us." Finding Buffy's eyes in the shadows. "Right, Buffy?"

"Hey, I don't want to get in the middle of—"

"Riley, we don't need a slayer for this. There's nothing to slay." To Buffy. "Look, we really appreciate your help and it was a pleasure meeting you and I'm sure you and Riley can catch up later or send postcards—"

"We didn't need to slay anything before and you agreed we could call her in to help."

"Yes, and her helping ended up being slaying."

Buffy tried to get a word in edgewise. "You know, here's fine. Why don't I just—" She opened the door.

Riley opened his, too. "I'm not leaving you...." He looked around. "...in the middle of a...graveyard?"

Sam had gotten out by this time. "See, a graveyard? Riley, now don't you think she probably just wanted to do her job? I think that's great. Shows a strong work ethic."

Buffy stared at Sam. "Um...thanks?"

The brunette plowed on, bound on convincing her husband to get back into the car. "She'll go kill some bad guys, while we go find the safe house...."

The neighborhood looked ludicrously safe around them, all trimmed lawns, garbage cans neatly lined up at the curb for the first garbage trucks that would be making their dawn runs soon. Safe with the exception of that blood-curdling scream that shattered the quiet. All three heads whirled in that direction.

Riley pulled out his dart gun, checking its chamber. "I'm loaded. Suvolte, maybe?"

Sam checked the pockets of her cargo pants. "Might have been another. Got ammo for demon and vamp."

Riley gave a crisp nod, then turned to ask Buffy, only to see the blonde slayer already running through the headstones.

Sam watched her go, then turned to Riley. "Are we engaging? What's our plan?"

"Follow her."

"That's not a—"

But, by then, Riley was already running after Buffy. Sam had no choice but to follow.

It didn't take Buffy long to find the vampires, circling around the late meal they'd snared: a Sunnydale resident foolish enough to attempt an early run through the graveyard. The slayer caught sight of the blonde-haired victim cowering with one large vampire's hand wrapped around her throat and ran faster even as she saw him bending in to feed. She snapped a branch off a tree and plunged it straight through one vampire before the group even knew she was there.

Then it was a whirl of blonde and black as she lashed out at the others in the group. The blonde victim tried to take advantage of the distraction and rammed the heel of her hand into the vampire's nose. That vampire howled and stepped back, but another jumped in, jerking her back before she ran away. Buffy snarled and broke away from her own fight to rush at the one who had her. But as she drove him back, he kept his grip on his victim and all three of them went crashing, head-first, into a mausoleum. The blonde woman slumped to the ground, unconscious. Buffy and the vampire both dropped to their knees, stunned.

Another vampire thought it was his lucky day and dove in, pinning Buffy down and bending in for her neck. Only to stop, confused, at the lack of pulse there. And as he wavered, he suddenly exploded in a cloud of dust, leaving Buffy looking up into familiar dark brown eyes. Eyes that met her own and then quickly swept over her, relieved to find her intact.

"Faith?"

"Buffy?" But that wasn't Faith's voice and both slayers looked over their shoulder to see Riley running up. The dark slayer looked from Riley back down to Buffy, taking in her black turtleneck, cargo pants, boots—the same as his. But she only had a second before the remaining four vamps were on all of them. Two of them grabbed Faith by either arm, hauling her off Buffy. The blonde slayer growled, rising to help, only to find herself slammed back down by another vampire pinning her to the ground. She would have let out a gasp of breath, had she needed to. Because she didn't need to, she head-butted him instead.

He bared his fangs, but stayed where he was on top of her. She spared a glance to one side, saw Riley exchanging punches with his assailant, and beyond him she saw Faith, a grin on her face as she jabbed a stake through one of her vampires. Buffy's eyes flickered back just in time to see the wooden stake whistling for her heart and she jerked her hand in front of it, feeling the tip of it dig a little into her palm before she could stop it.

From far away, she heard someone scream her name. Faith. Buffy saw her own hand quivering as its strength matched itself against the strength of the vampire bearing down on her with the assistance of gravity. And then she felt a little give as the vampire looked to one side and then she was pushing against nothing as the stake was no longer threatening her, but was turned against Faith and would've gone right into her gut had Buffy not pushed it aside at the last moment and, with her own fangs bared, turned the point of it through the vampire instead.

As the dust settled, a wooden bullet tore through Buffy's rib cage, just missing her heart. She cried out and fell back.

"What the fuck!? Who—?" Faith shoved the staggering blonde behind her, looking around for the enemy and finding Sam a few feet away with her weapon raised.

"Sam!" Riley yelled at his wife. She didn't listen to him, turning slightly to take out the last vamp with one quick shot, before bringing her sights back to Buffy, who leaned against the wall behind Faith.

"Okay, who the hell are you and why are you shooting at B?"

Sam choose to answer her husband rather than the dark slayer. "Riley, she's a vampire! I knew something was wrong with her!"

"Buffy's a—?" Looking over at his ex's still-transformed face, he could see it was true. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Through gritted teeth Buffy still managed some outrage. "You didn't tell me you were married!"

"Well, I think this is just a little different!"

"Hey, that's that guy!" Faith had just recognized Riley in the dark. A quick glance at the blonde behind her. "You're back with him, B?"

Buffy let out an indignant "No!" and Riley looked over sharply.

Sam narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean 'that guy'?"

Faith reached out a hand behind her to steady the other slayer, her eyebrow a question. Buffy closed her eyes but nodded, tight-lipped. She waved vaguely between Faith and the Riley and Sam. "Faith, meet Riley's wife, Sam." A pause. "I think you already know Riley."

Sam looked back and forth between Riley and Faith, who appeared to be muttering "shit" under her breath. "How does she know—?"

But Riley was still a little fixated. "Buffy, you're a vampire!"

Faith gave him a look. "Okay, I know you're not the brightest, but we've been through this. B's a vamp, but still herself...most of the time." To Sam. "So ease up, G.I. Jane."

"Who are you?" This time from Sam, who still had her gun raised.

Faith rolled her eyes. "Never mind, you guys are made for each other. I'm Faith, girl you tried to dust is B, that's your hubby, and you're Sam." Sam gave her an annoyed look.

"Wait, you're Faith?" This time from Riley.

"Jesus! What is with you people!? I give up!" Faith threw her hands in the air.

"That Faith?" Riley looked around the dark slayer to try to meet Buffy's eyes, but those eyes were squeezed shut as the blonde slayer leaned back against the mausoleum, clutching her side. So Faith answered for her.

"Yeah, we fucked when there was that whole thing with B," Faith glanced behind her. "...and I'm not proud of that, so let's just move on."

"Riley, what the hell is going on!?" Sam had dropped her gun, but looked as if she was debating turning it on the young man next to her.

"It's sort of hard to explain, but it's not as bad as it sounds. I thought Faith was Buffy, and she was, for a while anyway, but we got it sorted out."

Sam looked incredulously from the dark brunette to the blonde California girl behind. "Riley, how could you mistake—?"

But Riley was addressing Buffy. "Buffy, can we trust Faith? I know before there were...issues."

"She's fine, Riley. We've been working together." Buffy had her hand over her eyes, forcing her face to revert in spite of the pain as she wondered if this could all get any worse.

"Faith?"

Everyone turned at once to stare at the blonde woman sitting on the ground, holding her head.

Faith's eyes went wide. "Hey, I know you!"

"Faith, is that...? I thought you were supposed to be in the hospital."

"Why would I...you discharged...?"

"Okay, who the hell are you?" This from Buffy, who was sizing up the other blonde.

Faith muttered. "She did the psych eval in the hospital after, you know...."

"Oh."

Riley was listening closely. "A psych eval? Buffy, I thought you said Faith was stable? If she becomes dangerous to you again, like last time—"

The blonde slayer cut him off, eyes flashing as she pushed herself off the wall and took a few unsteady steps towards the soldier. "She won't, so why don' t you just drop it." It wasn't a question.

As Buffy moved, Sam took a step forward, half-raising her gun. And got a punch to her face. She grabbed her nose as she glared at Faith.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, my hand slipped." The brunette slayer had put herself between Sam and Buffy again.

"Faith!" The brunette slayer jerked her head around to the blonde woman still on the ground. "I didn't recommend discharge. What I recommended was further observation based on your violent tendencies...." The psychologist flicked her eyes over to Sam's bloody nose. "...which I can see still persist."

Faith's face went slack for a moment. Then she hissed under her breath: "Oh fuck." Buffy stepped in, addressing the other woman.

"Look, whatever you recommended, the doctors chose to release Faith and I think right now you're just a little shaken up from the attack—"

"God, that's right! Who were those guys?" She glanced around at the four people staring at her, taking in the dark clothes on three of them, the weaponry, the bleeding wound. "For that matter, who are all of you?"

Riley jumped in. "Neighborhood watch, ma'am."

Buffy tried to help. "Right, you can never be too safe from those, um, gangs, so it was a good thing that our newest recruit here knew lots of moves that were, um, offensive." Something didn't sound right there. "You know, for against other people."

"Well, I suppose I should be grateful to you then, Faith."

Faith looked from the woman to Buffy, whose green eyes were searching her own as she leaned against her. She looked back up at the blonde woman, who was mouthing "Is that...?" and pointing at Buffy. Faith shrugged.

Riley went on. "Perhaps we can walk you home, make sure you make it there safely...."

"That's my house just right over there. Maybe, if you wouldn't mind...." Riley dutifully came over to escort her, stopping long enough for her to throw back at Faith. "You know, if you need to talk...."

A curt "thanks." And the two of them walked the short distance across the street.

Sam opened her mouth to say something, but Faith spoke first. "B, dawn."

The blonde looked off into the dark, feeling the chill of the early morning. "I know. But I don't know if I should...."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to put you in danger." She turned to meet those brown eyes watching her.

"Well, apparently we're both dangerous, so it evens out." A pause. "And Xander and I bought you a new bed."

Riley had just walked back up. "Why would you be buying her a new bed?"