A/N: Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussies, hope everyone spent it on the beach and had a barbie like I did.
PROMPT THIRTY-FOUR: Rebirth
She doesn't talk to anyone about her time in prison, whether it is that it was so horrible that she can't speak about it or that she doesn't want to remind people she is an ex-con you are not sure. You never press the issue because you want her to feel comfortable sharing things with you and you know she will come to you when she is ready.
You don't see each other as much as you would like. The two of you both live in the Slayer Academy in Scotland that you helped set up after Sunnydale went boom, but Faith's role within the new Council has her travelling a lot of the time. When Giles had approached her with the position you had been adamant that she not take it, not because the two of you had finally begun a relationship but because you didn't want it to ruin all the progress she had made.
When girls across the globe started to get superpowers many of them didn't know how to use or handle them. Xander and Andrew are in charge of tracking them down and bringing them to the Academy where they are taught how to use them. Some of them who do not wish to have the powers can choose to have them magically removed and can lead a normal life. It was when reports started coming in of girls with supernatural strength who were causing trouble be it petty crime and even in a few cases murder, that the need for Faith's position arose.
She tracks these girls down and acts as a Counsellor, trying to get them back on the right track. Giles thought with her history that she would be the best person for the job and had you not seen what it does to her you would have readily agreed. Most of the girls she works with turn out just fine, they just needed someone who could understand what they were feeling to help guide them. There are others, who despite her best efforts are not willing to change, whose newfound power has corrupted them that she is forced to terminate their position as Giles puts it.
"My hands are already dirty B, why bother getting anyone else's wet," she'd said when you questioned her about it.
No one besides Giles, Faith and yourself know the full extent of her job and you know she prefers it that way. When she comes back from the bad trips she usually locks herself away in her room and drinks until she passes out. You don't try to stop her, not sure if there is a healthy way to deal with murder being part of your job description. She doesn't talk to anyone for three days after she returns home from those trips and you only learn about what she's seen and what she's had to do when in the throes of a nightmare she cries them out to the darkened room. You hold her every night after she comes back never letting your eyes fall from her tortured face and she never thanks you but when she wakes in the morning she always snuggles her head under your chin and kisses the skin over your heart so you know she needs you there as much as you need to be there for her.
She hasn't showed it to you but you found it once when you were looking for your shirt that had been flung across the room the previous night n her haste to get it off you. Under her bed against the back wall is a tally carved into the plaster along with the initials of every girl she's been sent after and had been unable to save. You haven't told her that you found it because you know she would have shown it to you if she wanted you to see it.
The two of you had been lying on her bed, just close enough that your sides were touching and she was playing with your hand as you watched TV. It had come as such a surprise that you had to pinch yourself to make sure that this wasn't a dream. She had just started talking, telling you about a woman she had met in prison who had taken her under her wing. Her crimes had been considered bad enough so Faith had been tried as an adult and had ended up in a woman's prison a year before her eighteenth birthday.
"She told me heaps of stuff about karma and I thought it was total bullshit and how people can be reborn and come back as animals or somethin'," she said not taking her eyes off of your joined hands. You were afraid to speak, not wanting to say anything that might discourage her from continuing.
"I hope the girls come back," she says and she doesn't need to specify which girls because you know who she means, "Sometimes I think if they never got the powers that they would be alright and it's not your fault," she says somehow knowing exactly where your head went when she said that, "You did the best thing at the time, we wouldn't have made it if you didn't and most of the girls are five by five with their new gig so I hope the ones that weren't get another chance."
You don't say anything just look at her for a moment before pulling her in and giving her a soft kiss on the lips. Sometimes the depth of her feelings for others catches you by surprise and you have to remind yourself that she is not the same out of herself teenager she once was.
"Maybe they'll come back as something cool like a butterfly," you say putting your arm around her shoulders.
"Nah butterflies only live for a couple of days, I hope they come back as koalas, those fellas have the best life just sleepin' all the time and gettin' high off leaves," she smirks.
You snort a little to yourself because in reality she is a little bit like a koala, she would sleep all day if you let her and she wraps herself around you like a koala would a tree. She of course doesn't get high off eucalyptus leaves but you are more than certain she would give it a try was she given the chance.
"Promise me you'll never get stoned off eucalyptus leaves," you say to her.
"What?" she asked clearly confused.
"Just promise," you say.
"Anyone ever tell you you're a weird chick B?" she asked.
"It has been pointed out on the odd occasion, but you still haven't promised," you whine.
"Fine I promise, happy?" she asks snuggling in against you.
"Very."