Faith couldn't make any sense of how someone could be causing her so much pain while trying to comfort her at the same time.

Whoever it was, spoke in calm and reassuring tones as they worked her over. Faith couldn't make out the words, but she could sure feel what they were doing to her.

It felt like she was being dissected. Almost her entire backside screamed in pain, but Faith herself was not making a peep.

She stayed still and silent, not wanting her torturer to know how much she was suffering. Eventually, they would stop, and Faith would get her revenge. She focused on imagining the destruction she would unleash to keep her from succumbing to the pain.

Her tormenter hit a particularly sensitive spot, and Faith couldn't stop herself from crying out or losing consciousness.

When Faith woke again, the torture was over. She was lying face down on a soft surface, and her back still hurt like hell. Carefully, she opened one eye to see Buffy staring at her from the other bed. Buffy gave her a wary glance, a newspaper clutched in one hand. It looked like Buffy was holding her breath.

"Faith?"

Faith didn't reply, and Buffy sighed sadly before returning her attention to the newspaper. Faith couldn't remember what had happened. It seemed like Buffy was the reason her back felt the way it did. But Faith didn't think there was any chance that Buffy would have actually hurt her on purpose.

Faith closed her eyes and tried to push away all thoughts of revenge. If Buffy had been the one to hurt her, she would have to bide her time and lull Buffy into a false sense of security.

"B?"

"Faith!" Buffy put her paper down and sat up on the bed. "Are you… how are you feeling?"

"Fucking fantastic."

Buffy chuckled lightly. "I have some food… if you think you're ready to sit up."

The mention of food brought Faith's hunger to the forefront. she had no idea how long it has been since she'd eaten anything. "Got a few questions first."

"OK."

"Am I... naked?"

Buffy winced and looked away in embarrassment, "yeah. I had to clean out all your wounds."

Faith narrowed her eyes, "wounds that you gave me."

Buffy hesitated with her reply, and seeing that guilt confirmed Faith's theory about who had been torturing her.

"Why the fuck would you do this to me and then be trying to be all nice?". Faith was annoyed with herself for losing her composure so quickly. in her current state, there was no way she could win if they fought.

"Wait, what?" Buffy stood up. "You think I… what do you think happened?"

Faith hesitated as her doubt returned that Buffy had been torturing her. "I don't know what happened."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Faith searched her memory, but she couldn't quite think clearly enough. "I woke up with you digging into my back."

"OK... but before that?"

"We… went through some kind of portals… there were these weird robot things." Faith trailed off as she tried to make the snippets of memories coalesce.

"Right. We were running from the robots, and one of them shot some kind of grenade at me. You… you protected me. You saved my life. But the grenade exploded all over you. I was able to find another portal and get us safe. I had to get all the bits of metal out of your wounds and stitch you up. That's what you felt me doing."

Faith frowned and closed her eyes. It was disappointing that there was no one to blame for the agony she experienced. "So where are we?" Faith was well-versed at being disappointed. Her lust for vengeance was gone, and she was ready to focus on getting out of this situation and away from Buffy.

"LA, April 23, 1952." She held up the paper and pointed to the date.

Faith started to shift, trying to roll herself over without letting Buffy see how much pain she was still in.

"Careful… some of your wounds are still open."

Faith ignored the warning as she moved to sit, facing away from Buffy.

"I got you a large t-shirt - if you want to try covering up."

Faith didn't really care about being exposed, so she didn't bother with the t-shirt. Very carefully, she stood and moved towards the bathroom. She was expecting a large mirror like even her shitty motel had, but this one only had a small one above the sink. There was no way she'd be able to see how badly she was wounded.

There was no doubt that it was bad. There were sharp points of pain and tightness all over her back and down her legs. She stared into the mirror and barely recognized what she saw.

Faith could remember now how she leaped through the air and protected Buffy with her own body. It hadn't been something she thought about at the time. But if you asked her - she would have laughed at the absurdity of the idea of sacrificing herself for anyone else.

When she came back out into the main room, Buffy was again looking at the paper.

"Why are you reading the paper?"

"Looking for a job."

"How have you been paying for all this?" Faith wasn't sure why she was suddenly so annoyed. But she was, and it was a struggle not to lash out.

"Slayer speed has its uses." Buffy shrugged, keeping her eyes focused on the paper. She was trying to preserve Faith's modesty, having no way of knowing that Faith didn't have any.

"Bullshit."

"What?" Buffy blushed as she looked up at Faith, standing in all her naked glory and calling Buffy a liar.

"Are you trying to tell me that you stole all this shit?"

"I had to do something. We needed a place to stay. We needed food and medical supplies! What should I have done?" This is the last reaction Buffy had expected from Faith. With what she assumed about Faith, she didn't think she'd care at all about Buffy stealing.

"You're really trying to convince me that 'little miss holier-than-thou' is a thief!" Faith laughed so much that she started to cough.

"I'm not trying to convince you of anything." Buffy slid on her shoes and stood with a resigned sigh. She had no idea why she thought things would be better between them when Faith woke up. "I'll be back later."

"Come on, since when are you so sensitive?" Faith grabbed Buffy's arm before she could get to the door. "I just never imagined you doing something like that."

Buffy ripped her arm out of Faith's grip. "Yeah, well. Just like I don't know anything about you - you don't know anything about me."

Faith crossed her arms over her chest, "fine. So you're a badass. Why do you need a job?"

"Just because I can steal - doesn't mean I want to. You're going to need more time to heal, and I haven't found another portal yet. So that means a job."

Faith's need for destruction returned with that comment, but she kept it buried. If she didn't get out of this room soon, she was going to start a fight. A fight she didn't think she could survive. "I'm ready to go." Faith searched through the drawers and scowled when they were all empty. "Where are my clothes?"

"They were shredded." Buffy motioned to a bag on the table and prepared herself for the backlash she knew was coming.

Faith frowned as she picked up the floral dress. "This was the best you could do?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "It's the 50's, your type of clothes don't even exist yet." She headed for the door again.

"Where are you going? Give me a sec to pull this shit on." Faith bit her lip to not scream when she pulled on the rough fabric over her head.

Buffy stood with her arms crossed and waited.

"Let's go find the portal." Faith tried to walk past Buffy, but Buffy grabbed her arm.

"You are bleeding through."

"Fuck." Faith hissed. "Maybe no one will notice."

Buffy sighed at Faith's stubbornness, "fine." Buffy let Faith walk by her, and then she punched her in the side of the head. Catching her before she could hit the ground. Buffy placed Faith back on the bed and carefully cut the dress away from her back. Then she moved to the other bed and silently sobbed.

When Faith awoke again, her head was pounding, and her back ached with renewed fury. She looked around the room, but it was empty. Slowly, she maneuvered to standing. There was a greasy bag on the nightstand, and Faith's hunger took over. She greedily ripped into it and downed the cold burger and stale fries.

The side of her face was sore, and she scowled when she remembered why. Buffy had knocked her out. Starting to pace the cramped space, she focused on what she would do when Buffy got back. Plans of hiding and pouncing on the other slayer were quickly dismissed. There was no where to hide, and she wasn't sure she would stand a chance against Buffy until she was fully healed.

As the hours ticked by, she wondered if Buffy was even going to come back. Faith started getting more and more stir crazy. She needed to get out of the room, but she had nothing to wear.

She slid the curtain open slightly, needing to at least see open space. She frowned when she saw that Buffy was sitting on a bench, not too far from their window. Just as Faith was about to bash on the window to get her attention - she saw Buffy wipe at a tear.

Faith had no idea what Buffy was so upset about. Faith was the one trapped in this room, naked and covered in grisly wounds. Wounds that she had gotten trying to save her.

Buffy should be kissing her ass, bending over backward to do anything for her. Not abandoning her and crying on a fucking bench.

Faith saw that Buffy clutched what looked like a container of food and a shopping bag - which Faith hoped carried some clothes she could actually stand to wear.

Buffy wiped at her face one more time and rose. Her shoulders were hunched dejectedly as she disappeared from view. A few minutes later, Faith heard the door unlocking. Buffy opened the door and winced when she saw Faith standing there. Her arms crossed, and her foot tapping in annoyance.

"You had no right to knock me out!" Faith shouted before Buffy could even get the door closed.

"I know." Buffy pushed out. "Here." Buffy held out her packages to Faith, but Faith didn't take them. Buffy sighed and placed them on the bed before turning to leave again.

"Where the fuck are you going now?"

Buffy had her back to Faith, her hand on the doorknob. "Do you like me?"

"What?"

"Even a little? Do you care about me or have any interest in getting to know me better?" Buffy had no idea why she was asking this. It was unlikely that Faith would be truthful.

"What does that have to do with anything? I thought you were all about us being a team? Now you're just ditching me?"

"I'm not ditching you. There is food and more clothes for you to try. I've been searching all over for our way out of here, and I was just going to get back to it." Buffy sounded so tired, Faith started to feel guilty for how she was acting.

But she had no idea how to respond to Buffy's question.

Buffy still hadn't turned around. "Why did you save me?"

"I… didn't really think about it." Faith shrugged. This was not a conversation she wanted to have. Faith rarely took the time to think about why she did anything, and she wasn't interested in doing that now.

"Would you do it again? If you had a choice?" Buffy turned around, and Faith grimaced as she tried to think of an answer.

Faith pushed out a breath. "I mean… yeah…. I think so. That thing was going to shred you way worse than it got me. So yeah… I know I'll heal..."

Buffy wasn't sure what to do with that, so she just nodded dumbly. "I'll stop by once a day with food."

"Wait. You're leaving again?" Faith hated that she sounded like she was whining. "You gotta be exhausted. Why don't you crash for a bit?"

"I was going to get another room and try to get some sleep before heading out again."

"Oh. Yeah. OK. I get it." Faith frowned, feeling like she was the kid no one picked for kickball.

"Did you want me to stay?" Buffy asked carefully. Faith's behavior was very confusing. It was the first time she started to realize that Faith's gruff attitude might just all be bravado. Maybe Faith wasn't what Buffy thought she was.

"I mean… it's kinda dumb for you to waste money on another room." Faith said nonchalantly, hoping to not sound too vested in what Buffy did one way or another.

Buffy didn't really want to get her own room, so she silently accepted Faith's reasoning and sat down on her bed heavily.

Faith did her best to ignore her and not show any sign of relief that Buffy was staying. In her efforts to look anywhere that wasn't Buffy - she noticed the container of food that Buffy had brought in. Happy to have the distraction, she greedily dug into the food. It was much better when it wasn't room temperature. After a few moments, she noticed Buffy was watching her eat.

"Something wrong?" Faith asked around a mouthful of burger.

Buffy shook her head and crawled the rest of the way onto the bed before curling herself into a tight ball with her back to Faith.

Faith could tell that Buffy wasn't asleep by the tempo of her breathing, but she wasn't sure what to do about it. She was anxious and miserable. The pain wasn't so much a problem as was the feeling helpless. Until she could leave the room without attracting attention, she would have to rely on Buffy, and she hated everything about that.

The faint light from the window began and dim, and Buffy sat up. She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck before standing up completely. Then grabbed one of the bags and went into the bathroom. A few minutes later, Buffy returned covered head-to-toe in black.

"Vampires?" Faith asked excitedly.

Buffy slid a stake into her back pocket and nodded, motioning to the other bag she had brought. Faith grabbed it with glee and ran into the bathroom. The sweatpants were kinda baggy, but she rolled them up as best she could. She practiced kicking a few times and smiled as it didn't seem to rub against any of her wounds or pull at her stitches. She carefully slid the t-shirt on and threw a few practice punches. There was also a knit cap. She frowned, wondering what Buffy was thinking. It was 80 degrees outside.

She came out to see Buffy had tucked her hair up into the cap. Faith frowned and threw the hat on the bed. Buffy looked like she was going to say something but decided against it.

"What? If you have something to say - just say it."

"The caps are to hide our hair, so from a distance, it would be so obvious that we're women. We don't want to attract too much attention."

Faith didn't really understand the concept of not wanting to attract attention, but she really wanted to go out and slay vampires, so she reluctantly snatched the hat up and copied Buffy.

Finally, they were outside. Faith was buzzing with the feeling of freedom. Quickly, they both moved into the shadow of the neighboring building.

Faith felt her slayer sense tugging her to the far side of the building. She motioned with her chin to Buffy, who nodded and followed her. They crept along the side of the building, and sounds of a struggle could now be heard. Faith hesitated for only a moment before leaping at the vampire who was assaulting a young woman. Buffy guided the woman out of the alley while Faith continued to fight the vampire.

"Stake!" Buffy tossed her stake to Faith, and she easily caught it, punching the vampire a couple more times before staking him.

Faith handed the stake back to Buffy, and the pair continued their search for more vampires. They had wandered a fair distance away from the hotel when they came across three vampires assaulting two kids. Buffy quickly staked one before engaging another. He was difficult, and she was having trouble finding an opening to stake him.

Finally, she was able to gain the advantage and ram her stake into his heart. When he was gone, she turned her attention to Faith. Faith was in her glory, wailing on the vampire and taunting him. Buffy shook her head and kept an eye out for any danger. Finally, Faith seemed to be done playing, and she shoved the vampire in Buffy's direction.

Buffy was expecting the move and the vampire was dust before he even knew what had happened.

Buffy caught movement behind Faith, then Faith dropped to her knees. She was back up in a flash to face her new enemy. Buffy registered what was happening just in time to launch herself between Faith and her attacker.

Buffy shoved the attacker away and took the brunt of a full-force slayer right cross to the side of her head. She was able to stay conscious only because she was expecting the blow and managed to turn her body away from the impact.

"Run!" She growled to the attacker and stood up, doing her best not to lose consciousness.

The boy dropped his metal pipe and ran as fast as he could out of the alley.

"B? What the fuck?" Faith growled and shoved Buffy.

"He was just a kid," Buffy answered. She held her hand to her head and frowned when blood was visible on her fingertips. She had taken her earrings out, thankfully, but Faith had still managed to hit her ear hard enough to make it bleed.

Faith froze at the comment. "He... he hit me with a pipe."

Buffy didn't say anything. Her ears were ringing, and she just didn't know what to do about anything anymore. Without comment, Buffy started walking back towards their hotel room. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not that Faith followed her without discussion.

They were almost back to the hotel when Buffy froze. Faith wasn't paying attention and stumbled into her.

A man was standing in the alley across the street- his face just barely illuminated by the street lights. He was grinning at Buffy, and the grin sent chills through her.

"Is that… Angel?" Faith asked, stepping to the side of Buffy to see what she was staring at.

"I.. think that's Angel without a soul. Which is so very not good." Buffy replied with much more calmness than she felt.

The man grinned wider, his beautiful face contorting into a horrific leer, before disappearing into the shadows.

"Should we go after him?" Faith heard stories about a soulless Angel - but she hadn't really believed he was that big of a deal. After seeing him, she was changing her mind. Whatever that thing was - he gave her chills, almost as bad as Kakistos did. She really hoped that Buffy was going to say no.

Buffy was having a mini panic attack. She knew that Faith would want to go after him, that she was going to make some callous joke, and Buffy couldn't take it if that happened.

"Cause you know… I think maybe I've had enough excitement for one night." Faith finally said, and Buffy almost laughed in relief.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Let's just go back."

They returned to the room, and Buffy wondered what was going to happen next. She was not expecting that Faith was going to immediately pull off all her clothes.

"Am I bleeding anywhere?"

Buffy moved closer, "just where that kid hit you. Do you… do you want me to clean it up?"

"Yeah, thanks." Faith said, and Buffy silently retrieved the medical supplies she had stolen and wiped away the blood.

"I don't think you need any new stitches, and It seems like most of these are ready to come out. Do you want me to do that now?"

Faith tensed, and her hands curled into tight fists.

"You can probably reach some of them. There's just a couple in the middle of your back that you'll need help with." Buffy sighed when Faith didn't respond.

Faith tensed even further at the idea of needing help for anything from anyone. She took several deep breaths and tried to remember that Buffy was all she had. Buffy was taking care of her. Buffy saved her from making a terrible mistake tonight. If the situation had been reversed, Faith wasn't sure she would have tried to stop it, even if she had noticed in time.

Pushing out a breath, she let all the tension release from her body.

"Um, sure. Where do you want to do it?"

Buffy was shocked by the response and had to think for a bit before answering. "I think the best light is in the bathroom."

Faith moved into the bathroom, and Buffy followed her.

Buffy started in the middle of Faith's back and carefully pulled out the stitches. It didn't hurt, but it was a pretty unpleasant tugging feeling.

"I think I got all the ones you can't reach - do you want to do the rest?" Buffy held out the scissors, and Faith resisted her impulse to say yes.

"Nah, you can finish - if you don't mind."

"Sure, no problem." Buffy got back to work, removing the stitches. Starting at the top and working her way down. Things got a little awkward around Faith's upper thigh area, but Buffy focused her attention on what she was doing and not how close her hands were to parts of Faith she never imagined she'd see.

Having been exposed to a naked Faith for over a week did lessen some of her embarrassment.

"There, all done. There's still a few that don't look quite ready - maybe by tomorrow."

"Thanks, B." Faith smiled, and Buffy nodded.

Buffy smiled back and returned to the main room. She stripped off her clothes and slid under the covers. She had barely slept at all since they arrived here. Now she knew that Faith was going to be OK. So maybe she could finally sleep for more than a few hours.

"B?"

Buffy tried not to sigh as she was pulled back from the edge of sleep, "yeah?"

Faith was quiet, and Buffy almost thought she had imagined that Faith had tried to talk to her at all.

"Do you think Angel is going to come after us? Like should we be keeping watch or something?"

"I think there's a good chance he'll come after us. But I'm guessing we won't see him coming. We just need to find our way out of here as soon as possible."

Faith was quiet again, and Buffy started to drift off to sleep. "Did it fuck you up… seeing him?"

Buffy thought about it for a bit, "a little, I guess. Knowing what I know about Angel's past, it always hurts when I have to face that the Angel that I… got close to… was once like that thing we saw tonight."

Faith nodded, though Buffy couldn't see it. "I get that. You think you know someone, but you never really know what's going on inside them."

Buffy rolled onto her back so she could see the other slayer out of the corner of her eye. Faith was still naked, peeking out of the window through the edge of the curtain. Faith hadn't realized that Buffy could see her. Raw emotion was visible on her face.

Buffy wondered what Faith was thinking about - and if there was any way that they could stay in this moment.

There were so many things that she liked about Faith. And the things she didn't like were centered around her being worried that something like what almost happened tonight could happen for real. As annoying as she often found Faith, she still wanted her in her life. She liked having another slayer around.

"Hey, B?"

"Yeah?" Buffy hoped her exhaustion wasn't evident in her voice.

"Thanks." Faith swallowed, and Buffy thought she saw a tear forming. "For tonight, I mean… you know taking me out slaying."

Buffy knew that wasn't really what Faith was thanking her for. Deciding to just accept this small olive branch, she nodded. "It felt good to be out there with you again. Do you think you'll be up for searching for a way out of here tomorrow?"

Faith smiled, "hell yeah."

Buffy laughed, "you're going to have to try a dress again. We won't be able to go anywhere during the day if we don't blend in."

"Ugh. Come on, there has to be something better we can wear." Faith moaned and picked up the dress and shook it angrily.

"We can look. But when I was first making my way around, I was stopped constantly by people trying to help me. I had to run from the police, which really didn't go too well with all the misdemeanors I was committing."

Faith furrowed her brow, and then she grinned. "Can you tell me about how you learned to pick-pocket?"

Buffy sat up and leaned against the headboard. Even though she was exhausted, she couldn't let this opportunity pass. This was the first time since meeting Faith that they were having a real conversation. As ashamed of herself as she was, if sharing this story would help bring them closer together, she had to try.

"You don't have to… it's just…" Faith had been excited to hear about Buffy's criminal past. She thought it might make her feel better about the things she had done.

"No, I don't mind telling you." Buffy hugged her knees to her chest. "So you know the part about how I had to kill Angel. But the part I'm not sure anyone else knew was that my mom kicked me out that night."

"No shit? Why would Joyce do that?" Faith had thought Buffy had a perfect relationship with her mother. It was one of the many things that she resented the older slayer for.

"She found out I was the slayer, and she couldn't deal. She told me if I left - to never come back." Buffy sighed. "So, yeah. I sent Angel to hell, and I pretty much had no where to go, so I went to LA."

Faith nodded, waiting for Buffy to continue. Faith was starting to realize that maybe Buffy wasn't what she thought. The idea that Buffy might be flawed gave Faith comfort.

"I was all alone in LA, with nothing. I wandered around, and the first day I saw some kids and how they were surviving on the streets. So I kinda copied them. I tried to be careful with my targets, just stealing cash from people I thought could handle it. I didn't do it a lot - just enough to get started. Then I got a job at a diner." Buffy shrugged in shame at having to resort to crime to take care of herself.

Faith nodded again, and Buffy noticed her face tense and then relax.

"Shit." Buffy sat up straighter against the headboard. "That's what you've been doing your whole time at Sunnydale. I… that day with Kakistos - you were arguing with the manager. I was just so angry with you for not telling me who you were running from. I… didn't even think."

Faith heaved in a breath. "It's no big, B. I've been living like that a lot longer than SunnyD."

"Faith." Buffy started and then stopped. Faith wouldn't want to hear any pity. "When we get back, I'll make sure the council starts taking care of you."

Faith laughed, "you're kidding, right? The same council that pumped you full of drugs as some kind of bullshit test? That council? Even if they were willing to help me - no way am I taking anything from them."

Buffy sighed, "I know they're pretty much the worst… but you shouldn't have to live like that. You're a slayer - you should get some kind of support."

Faith leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. Even if it turned out that they had more in common than she expected, she knew Buffy could never truly understand. "Nah. 'Sides, I think I'm gonna take off once we get back anyway. Find my own way."

"Oh… but…" Buffy frowned. She wasn't sure why the idea of Faith leaving bugged her so much.

"If you end up going off to college or something, I can come back and hold down the Hellmouth for you." Faith shrugged and turned her attention back to the crack in the curtains.

"Where do you think you'll go?"

"Dunno, wherever the wind blows me, I guess." Faith cracked her knuckles and hoped that this conversation was over. Faith didn't think about the future. It only led to disappointment.

Buffy continued to surreptitiously watch Faith's face, silently deciding that she would find some way to convince Faith to stay.

Faith kept her silent vigil at the window, and Buffy finally managed to drift off to sleep.

A/N: I appreciate those pointing out the perceived inconsistencies with Angel and his soul. Hopefully, that will make more sense in later chapters.