Chapter 10

When the check arrived from Wolfram & Hart, everyone boggled at the six-figure amount while Anya did her triumphant dance. They all knew she'd be lording this over them for some time to come, but looked at the sum again and decided they could live with it.

Giles finally found his tongue. "Anya, you do realize you are obligated to share that money with the rest of the group, do you not?"

Anya stopped dancing and glared at him. "Why? It was my idea, it's my shop and my inventory, and I sent in the invoice."

Giles polished his glasses. "Yes, but you included in that sum the labor costs of the ritual itself, and we are all contributing to the performance of the rite. I'll waive my portion, as it does involve our shop and our inventory, but the others should be compensated for their efforts."

"But it's MY money!"

"No, it's OUR money." Giles paused. "How does this sound: add up the actual costs the shop incurred for this rite, then add in a reasonable 10% markup. That goes directly to the shop. The remaining amount will be divided into eight even portions. You, Buffy, Xander, and Tara will each get one share. Since Willow and Faith are actually conducting the Rite, they should get two shares. Does that sound fair to you?"

Anya pouted. "No, it doesn't sound fair at all. No one else was thinking about money. I did all that work to get it, so I should get to keep it. Or at least decide how it gets allocated."

Giles frowned. "Need I remind you that you did all this in the name of the shop, and I am still officially the majority owner? And that check is made out to the shop?"

As Anya stewed over the matter, Buffy spoke up. "You know, all of us help out around here on occasion, and none of us are on the payroll. Maybe we should look into forming a union or something."

Anya's eyes widened in panic. "Fine! We'll do it that way! But I don't want to hear the U-word in here ever again!"

Giles gave Buffy a grateful smile. Buffy had figured out a while ago that any threat to Anya's fiscal prosperity would instantly get her attention, and wring major concessions from her. She didn't bring out the big gun too often, which means it worked quite well.

Buffy nodded, but chose to modify the arrangments slightly anyway. "And make that nine shares, not eight. Giles, if Anya's paying off the shop and taking a personal cut, you get one, too. No arguments."

Giles yielded to the inevitable, and resolved to look carefully at Anya's calculations for the shop's portion of the bounty. He had no doubts that she'd shade the numbers to put more into the shop, but he figured he'd at least head off the worst of the depredations. She might be the expert on the costs of the magical components, but he was no slouch in that area. Besides, as senior partner, he had access to the real books, and could spot-check her on anything that looked too unreasonable.

Things progressed smoothly towards the Rite. Willow took all of one minute to explain Faith's role in the whole ritual: lie down, don't move, close her eyes, shut up, and don't do one single thing that might distract Willow. Faith amused herself by trying to carve out a few outrageous exceptions (like lying face-down into Willow's lap, licking her fingers, and the like), much to Tara's delight, but she finally settled down and behaved herself.

It seemed odd that she and Tara would bond over Faith flirting with Willow, but Faith finally attributed it to 1) Tara's unshakeable faith in her relationship with Willow, and 2) Willow was insanely adorable when she was embarrassed. Tara also hinted that she'd taken a few of Faith's more raunchy moves as suggestions, but coyly demurred from giving more details.

Anya had also approached her. In her characteristic bluntness, she'd told Faith that Faith had been Xander's only sexual partner before Anya, and he had been far more satisfactory than a teenage boy with a single experience had any business being. Anya didn't press for details (although it was clear she wanted to), but implied she was grateful for whatever Faith had done. Faith wanted to tell her that they hadn't done that much, really, and it must have been just natural talent, but she was mildly weirded out by the discussion and, not used to being the uncomfortable one, had quickly ended the chat.

Everyone had been resolute about Faith not going patrolling with Buffy, but after a few days they could tell she was getting seriously edgy with pent-up aggression. Buffy offered to spar with her, and the two had somehow built a bond out of trying to bash each other's heads in. They found themselves gradually getting in sync with each other through some sort of "slayer bond," and found they could anticipate each others' moves before they actually happened. Their fights became almost a choreographed ballet where lethal-force blows would miss by fractions of inches and seconds, and often the others would stop what they were doing just to admire their grace. Xander once dropped his hammer on his foot and didn't notice for almost a minute.

Xander himself had first been nervous about his girlfriend and his ex (well, his first partner, to be perfectly honest) getting along, but soon relaxed when he saw that they were not bonding over discussing him. They were both brash and forthright, but where Faith's was a defense mechanism that had become a habit, for Anya it was innate. The two quickly gave up on trying to discomfit each other, and moved on to working together to make everyone else uncomfortable. It was tremendously entertaining – as long as they were double-teaming someone else. And working with Faith on rearranging the workout area had given him a comfortable "teammate" attitude.

And Giles... he never quite developed the paternal relationship he had with Buffy, but he soon grew fond of Faith in his own way. She obviously respected him, but took great glee in deflating him when she thought was necessary. And her definition of "necessary" was considerably laxer than he thought appropriate, but a bit of affectionate insubordination was far preferable to outright rebellion or betrayal.

They'd even started a movie night at the Buffster's house, and Faith had found herself (at first reluctantly) welcomed by Buffy's mother and little sister – who was rather annoying. But she focused nearly all her annoyance on Buffy, so Faith found herself fond of the kid despite herself. She discovered that she had a major weakness for some major cult classics: Blazing Saddles, The Princess Bride, Heathers, the original Highlander, and a few others. She'd even sat through all three of the original Star Wars movies, at Xander's insistence.

Far sooner than anyone thought possible, the day arrived when all was ready for the Rite.