(Takes place during 'Who are you')

Sunnydale is known for its drama and chaotic scene. While many of its citizens were unaware of the true dangers Sunnydale produced or chose to look the other way, they were still used to seeing flashing lights. Be it the cops responding to reports of gang related attacks, ambulances picking up victims low on blood or call outs to criminals in the most realistic and frightening Halloween costumes residents had all seen their fair share. But currently the drama in town was at the front of Joyce Summer's home. An ambulance is on the lawn while a police car with lights flashing is parked on the street. A plainclothes police officer with his badge visible on his breast is speaking to the woman known as Joyce Summers who is watching the scene calmly and with almost an impassive air about her.

"It's good you called. We've been looking for this girl since she broke out of the hospital." Plainclothes officer says to Joyce calmly.

"What's going to happen to her?" Joyce asked him gesturing to a gurney to where Faith was being strapped in. Buffy is next to the gurney standing guard in case Faith the former vampire slayer now psychotic girl breaks out again.

"Well, get her checked out. She's in stable condition, she goes to jail, pending trial" The officer replied writing some notes in his pad.

Joyce nodded taking in the information with detached unreadable expression on her face "Sucks to be her" she replied casually.

"The first thing is to keep her from hurting anybody else" The officer reassured her.

The body of Faith is wheeled on a gurney to ambulance. The personnel lift her into ambulance. Buffy looks satisfised with proceedings and moves back to her mother. There was a part of Buffy that felt regret. Maybe it could have been different after all, if she could just talk to Faith, convince her... what? That everything was going to be fine? She had tried that last year and look what happened. That was ludicrous and Buffy knew it. Faith had got herself into a deep mess and Buffy wasn't about to help her find a way out. She had crossed the line holding her mother hostage.

"Well, you guys will be safe now. We may have a couple of questions in the morning." The officer closed his pad and nodded at pair of them.

The emergency personnel close the rear doors on the ambulance. Joyce stared at it in a daze. This was it she thought she was really going to do this. "Oh, uh, of course." Joyce said snapping out of her staring at the ambulance turning back to the officer.

Plainclothes officer smiled at them both and said "Thank you. Both. I'm glad we finally got the kid."

"She's not a kid!" Buffy told him forcefully before relenting "I just mean that she's very strong. Be careful!" She knew better than anyone what Faith was capable of. If she broke out again…

"Yeah I understand" the officer replied as the ambulance started to leave. "This Faith chick- definitely dangerous."

"She truly is" Faith said to him and then glanced at her reflection in the window. It was the image of Joyce Summers staring back at her. She smiled to herself. She had gotten away with it. A chance for a second life. She closed the front door as the officer turned to leave and wandered back into the living room. Seeing Buffy crouched down cleaning the last of the broken glass from the now destroyed coffee table.

"That's the last of it" Buffy said standing up putting the glass carefully in a box. "Sorry about the coffee table."

God these people say they are sorry over coffee tables! You don't feel remorse for the petty things. Remorse is for wimps. Not for Faith. Yeah, just call me Miss Demeanour, she thought with a quick smirk. "Hmmm? Oh, its fine… just as long as you are okay!" Faith grimaced not knowing how to play this. She needed Buffy gone otherwise she might suspect something. There was awkwardness in this moment for Faith.

"God, I hate Faith!" Buffy exclaimed looking at the box of damaged wood and glass. "She is nothing but trouble. I finally thought I was rid of her and then I find out my mother is held hostage by that raving psychotic."

Faith tried not to get angry listening to Buffy curse her out. "Well… she's not your problem anymore!" she said weakly. In her head she wanted nothing more than to slam B's head inside her mother's oven over and over again. Anything to rip B's beautiful, self-righteous little face clean off.

"I guess not" Buffy said relived before looking at her mother. Faith felt uneasy under her gaze. "Are you sure you are okay Mom? You seem nervous."

Busted! Faith thought. "No! just ummm… a little shook up from having that psychotic near me" Faith said quickly trying to smile.

Buffy moved forward concern pouring off her body as she looked at her mother. She hugged Faith who stood there uneasy at the action but to keep up appearances wrapped her own arms around Buffy. "She didn't hurt you, did she?" Buffy asked quietly. Buffy hugged her like she really cared, and she didn't know how to deal with that. No one had ever touched her that way. But she awkward quickly returned the hug.

"No!" Faith said, "Just tied me up and waited for you."

Buffy smiled moving back to face Faith "I'm glad." She said all sweetness and smiles… god Faith wanted to punch her but alas not now, not in this body. "Anyway," Buffy said turning away "I should check in with Giles bring him up to speed on what has happened. Are you sure you are going to be okay?"

Faith nodded "I'm going to take a bath." She turns abruptly and heads upstairs.

XXXXXXX

In a hospital room a hospital worker falls back painfully into furniture.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Joyce cries as she is struggling in a hospital bed. Three other hospital personnel, a uniformed officer and a plainclothes officer holding her down.

A doctor turns to a nurse "Get me a sedative now!" he barks trying to keep Joyce's arm still. The nurse moves away to a cabinet and opens a drawer. Joyce manages to push another body away from her. Her nerves were so frayed that she was operating on instinct alone. After being knocked out by Faith she had found herself in restraints with strangers looking over her. And if that was not horrifying enough, she could still remember the flash of light and the split second of seeing her own body in front of her.

"Hold her!" The officer holding her waist yells.

Joyce wrestles desperate to get out of the bed. "I have to go home! She's with my daughter!" She turns her head and gasps as she catches her reflexion in a nearby mirror. It is Faith's face staring back at her. Joyce's panicked, scared expression but Faith's features and face looking back at her.

The nurse passes a needle with sedative to the doctor who quickly puts the needle in Joyce's arm.

Joyce stares at him "No please!"

"Just lie still" the doctor says pulling the needle out.

Joyce feels herself begin to drift and face into sleep. "You don't understand… She's taken my...my body." Black nothingness begins to take hold of her as her surroundings all around her begin to fade away and she couldn't move, couldn't feel anything. Oh no, god, please… Joyce lost consciousness and closes her eyes.

XXXXXX

Faith lay relaxing in the tub, having a bubble bath. She sighs with her eyes closed. Then she raises her arms out of the water to examine them. She lifts her left leg straight up to look at it and smiles, caressing it with her hands. Well this was her body now so it would seem she better get used to it. There was not much resemblance between mother and daughter, except maybe the hair and the nearly infinite talent for denial, Faith thought. Still Joyce had a tight stunning body for her age, and she had bigger tits than Buffy. Faith lowers the leg back in the water and scoops two handfuls of suds and blows the bubbles into the air.

Moving out of the bathroom she went into Joyce's room Faith couldn't help but notice all the little touches that were Joyce, the drapes, the mug on the bedside table, the ornaments that adorned the walls. It was very middle-class, refined with tiny flourishes of creativity. She wondered, perversely, if Joyce had ever screwed anyone in here, while Buffy was at school, or now because Buffy was living away. Whatever Faith moved across the room and opened a closet. Faith sighed in disappointment Joyce clearly didn't share her fashion sense. Still she searched for something to wear then minutes later Faith then stands in front of the full-length mirror checking out Joyce's reflection. She's dressed in a dark red tight dress that she suspected that Joyce had never worn before given the price tag still attracted to it. Why she resisted was anyone's guess as the dress clung to Joyce's curves and looked fantastic on her. Reaching into top she adjusts Joyce's breasts to a more perky position then puts her hands on her hips to inspect the improved cleavage.

"Not too bad" Faith appraised Joyce had a good body for her age before looking around in Joyce's dresser. In the first drawer she opens she finds Joyce's passport and flips through it. She spies Joyce's purse on the nightstand and opens it up eyeing the credit cards. She resented Buffy for everything that she had: the perfect mother, the perfect love, the perfect friends. Faith had nothing except that, the envy, envy so deep and intense. Now it was payback time in a sense.

She turns to the full-length mirror and smirks at her reflection. "Thanks Mrs Summers" she mutters casually before blowing her reflection a kiss and leaving the room… and then the house.

XXXXXXX

The constant rocking of the surface she was lying on and the subtle feeling of motion greeted Joyce as she swam back to consciousness. Stifling a low moan as she slowly regained her senses, she blinked her eyes but remained still as she took stock of her situation, trying to determine just where she was, and what was going on. She was handcuffed and in the back seat of a car, a police car, apparently, judging by the steel mesh grille she could see in front of her. Beyond the grille separating the front of the patrol car from where she was lying, were a uniformed officer and a detective in the passenger seat, who were apparently discussing her.

"She's coming to. Man, I want this kid's constitution," the detective said, amazement and admiration in his voice as he glanced into the back seat. "Let's move it. I want to get her in a cell before she's a hundred percent."

As the officer driving turned his head to glance into the back to confirm his companion's statement, a large red armoured truck suddenly darted out from a side street and screeched to a halt directly in front of the police cruiser, which crashed right into its side. Joyce's head slammed against her seat. Two men carrying MP-5K submachine guns immediately jumped out of the back of the truck, a heavy-set dark-haired man covering both police officers, who were sprawled unconscious across the steering wheel and dashboard. His companion, a burly blond, used the butt of his weapon to smash out the window next to Joyce, who had remained limp and motionless on the back seat, her eyes slit open only the smallest amount necessary to allow her to see them.

"Hurry it up and get the needle ready," Blond-Guy told his companion as he used the barrel to clear the remaining glass fragments from the window frame. Reaching in through the window, he roughly began dragging Joyce out of the car, as the dark-haired man cradled his MP-5K under his arm while he clumsily fumbled open a hypodermic case. Keeping herself limp, Joyce waited until Blond-Guy was supporting her weight with both hands, and Hypo-Guy's hands were reaching towards her to give her a shot, then double kicked at Hypo-Guy. Her first kick smashed the needle from his hands and the second caught him squarely in the groin, dropping him immediately to the street.

Joyce then reached back and grabbed hold of Blond-Guy's arms and pulled forward sharply, yanking him over her head and slamming him onto the asphalt. She turned and saw Hypo-Guy getting back up reaching for a gun. Acting on pure instinct she swung a clenched fist at him. What she expected to merely slap him instead knocked him back to the ground limp and unconsciousness.

Joyce stared at fist in wonder and amazement "what on earth?" she said before she saw the driver of the armoured truck getting out. Not wasting a second, she ran off moving faster and freer than she had ever experienced. Ducking and racing down several alleys she moved faster and faster. Desperate to escape.

XXXXXXX

It had taken a while, but Joyce was now at Giles' apartment. She decided that going home was too risky with Faith there so Rupert's home was the best option. Glancing around again, she casually walked through the courtyard, all her senses alert for anything out of the ordinary. Her senses were so strange in Faith's body. Everything was in sharp focus, every sound and scent overwhelming. Even now, she could hear a dog barking a mile away. It was night but yet everything appeared bright as if daytime. Was this what Buffy felt and experienced every day? Shaking off her thoughts Joyce knocked on the door to Giles' apartment. Giles opened it but seeing who it was instantly tried to slam the door shut but Joyce's hand moving faster than both he and she expected grabbed the door.

"Buffy!" he cried gripping the door with both hands and pushing against it with all his might. Joyce was merely holding onto it with one hand and that seemed to be enough against Rupert's strength.

Buffy came into view and her features darkened "Do you have a death wish?!" she roared. Buffy's immediate reaction was to reach for the nearest blunt object but with nonavailable she brushed past Giles, she launched herself at Joyce. Joyce tired dodging and weaving but was no match against the legend that was her daughter who rained punches and kicks at her. Joyce fell to the ground with Buffy towering over her. "You think you can hold my mother hostage?" She couldn't believe Faith would have the audacity to show her face around here. She re-evaluated that opinion. It was exactly the sort of reckless thing Faith would do.

"Please! You… have to listen to me very carefully… I'm not Faith." Joyce begged lying on the floor.

"Well, the resemblance is amazing," Giles replied from where the others stood. Joyce noted the incandescent fury was written plainly across Willow's face, her eyes blazing.

"Please listen to me!" Joyce cried.

"Quit it!" Buffy snapped "I know what you're going to say!"

"I'm Joyce," the brunette said quietly.

Buffy and the others paused where they were for a moment, obviously surprised looking at each other until Xander pipped up, "All right, I for one didn't know what you were going to say."

"Faith switched. I mean, she had some device. She switched our bodies. Buffy, I swear," the brunette looked imploringly at the older woman as she brushed a long strand of hair back from her face, "it's me."

Something about the gesture made Buffy look harder at the young woman she believed had assaulted her earlier that evening. Moving closer to her she stared hard at brunette. "Giles maybe she is right!"

"Well yes I suppose it's possible" Giles said but sounded more confused than certain.

"She can't be it's a trick!" Willow said looking back and forth at both Giles and Buffy but sounded unsure herself.

"It could be a trick" Giles offered to Buffy who was clearly debating. Joyce had to think fast.

"Candy!" She cried out in panic. "Last year Rupert and I were reduced to being teenagers due to candy that you sold us Buffy." Turning from Buffy to now Giles "you knocked out a policeman and stole his gun and his handcuffs! We… ummm… had sex on his car I remember thinking – "

"Mom!" Buffy interrupted loudly, before she could complete her sentence.

"Oh, don't stop her" Anya said from next to Xander "it was just getting interesting!"

Buffy ignored her and turned to a now deeply blushing Giles. "I think that's enough, don't you?" Buffy asked him.

"Yes, do you want me to continue?" Joyce asked from the ground, looking up at Giles.

"Actually, I beg you to stop," he answered, as he reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. Coincidently, both he and Joyce now seemed to be looking anywhere but in the vicinity of each other.

"Mom!" Buffy said, her voice muffled as she hugged her tightly. "What happened? Are you all right?"

"I don't know how she did it, Buffy," the brunette told her as she hugged her back tightly, "except she had some kind of bracelet kind of clasp thing on her hand before she grabbed hold of me, and then, Zap! I'm in her body and before I could figure out what happened, she knocked me out. Are you OK? She didn't hurt you or anything, did she?"

"Oh god Mom I'm so sorry I hit you!" Buffy cried thinking back to moments ago when she was ready to bash her into the next world. For a brief, panic-stricken moment she wondered what life would be like if her mother died.

"It's okay I understand" Joyce reassured her, as she held Buffy to her and stroked her hair reassuringly. "Don't you worry about me. I am just fine," she said, as unshed tears glittered in her eyes staring at her daughter.

"How could this have happened?" Willow asked Giles quickly putting her thinking hat on.

"Ah, hmmm," Giles cleared his throat. "All right ...Buffy. Joyce." They turned to him as Buffy helped Joyce to her feet. "I need you to tell me everything you can remember about what occurred when the switch took place," he instructed them.

Okay," the blond Slayer agreed. "Faith and I were fighting, and she knocked me down. She had some kind of clasp-y bracelet kind of thing on her hand, over her palm. I was dazed on the floor I didn't see what happened after that."

"While Buffy was down, I rushed at her and hit Faith with a frying pan" Joyce continued "but she grabbed hold of my hand, there was a ZAP! and then I was looking at myself from her eyes. I froze up for a second and Buffy knocked me out. The next thing I know, I was starting to wake up and I was being handcuffed by the police and sedated by the paramedics. The next time after that when I woke up, I was in the back of a police car, just before some men with guns crashed it with their truck. I got away from everybody then, and I came straight here."

"Did you see the bracelet she was using? Get a good look at the design? Any details?" Giles asked Buffy.

"I was fighting her to the death Giles. Not admiring her jewellery" Buffy deadpanned. Giles scowled at her.

"Well" Willow offered "magic like that sounds powerful and unique. I can't imagine there are too many spells or devices like that around."

"So not in the fruit and veg section then?" Xander joked.

"Good point! It should be easy to trace" Giles said with hope.

"But what does that matter if we don't have Buffy's mom's Body?" Anya pointed out.

"Well then we need to find Faith and fast!" Buffy spoke to the group. "I don't care if we have searched the whole town twice, we need to find her now!" She would go to hell and back to track Faith down there was no way she would not paid for this!

"Aren't we forgetting something?" Xander spoke up with the others turning to him. "Those badass watchers are still looking for Faith I mean Joyce I mean Buffy's mom! She can't go running around town."

"Yes! That's right who are they?" Joyce asked turning to Giles and Buffy.

"They are Council's Retrieval team" Giles offered her as if that answered everything.

"What's a Council Retrieval Team, and what are they doing in Sunnydale?" Joyce asked. "And why couldn't you ask them to help you?"

"Mom, this really isn't the time for long explanations," Buffy said, trying to avoid the questions Joyce had raised. " We need to do some research then find Faith, so we can undo whatever it is she did, and we can get your body back."

"So just give me short explanations then, young lady." Joyce's voice held the 'no-nonsense' tone that Buffy recognized from her younger years even if it was now coming from Faith's mouth and had her voice. Any attempts to alter or reshape the truth would go very badly for her. "Who are these people, what are they doing here, and why won't they help you?"

"They're the Council's pet thugs, and they're here to take Faith back to England to stand trial before the Council, okay?" Buffy said, quickly. Joyce studied her for a moment.

"You weren't going to tell me anything about this, were you?" Joyce stated, as she looked into the eyes of the girl standing before her. "Faith? Council's retrieval team? Faith waking up? Trials?! I mean if this had happened to you and had managed to reverse the spell, you would never have told me about any of this, would you?"

"I wouldn't want you to worry, Mom," Buffy said weakly.

"You wouldn't want me to worry?" Joyce repeated. "Buffy, I'm your mother. I worry about you all the time. Even if you weren't the Slayer, I'd still worry about you, because you're my little girl, and you always will be. So, don't not-tell me things because you don't want to worry me, okay, honey? Because that's not going to work."

"Okay, Mom," the blond gave her a faint smile while rolling her eyes. "Next time if I get body switched, I will make sure you are the first to know that I've been body-switched, okay?"

"You know what I mean, Buffy," Joyce gave her a stern look which Buffy had to look away from. It was so bizarre to see her mother give her the 'Mom' face when wearing Faith's face. They had to find Faith and get this fixed fast. Giles however thankfully stepped in.

"We can't ask them for help because they'll think you're Faith sadly" he said. "And if they see you, they'll just try to catch you and take you back to England. I have had some dealings with this group before. They won't care whether you're really Faith or not. They just want to show Buffy who is in charge it seems."

Joyce stared at him for a moment while she analysed what she had just been told "and you work for these people?!" she asked in disbelief. Getting Buffy to fight the supernatural was bad, forcing her to lose her powers and then fight to death in that barbaric Cruciamentum test and now this?!

"Oh no not anymore" Anya explained "He was fired!"

"Yes, thank you Anya!" Giles gritted his teeth turning to her, but she merely politely smiled at him.

"Okay Willow, Xander, Anya start searching for this clasp." Buffy ordered "Giles, Mom and I will go to my house and look for Faith or any sign of her."

XXXXXX

Buffy raced outside Giles's car as soon as he pulled up outside. She spirited into the house as Joyce and Giles got out the car. They moved more slower and cautiously listening out for sounds of a struggle or Buffy fighting Faith in the house. They came inside just as Buffy was coming down the stairs. "I've checked all the rooms, she isn't here." Buffy stated disappointed.

"Any signs of anything missing?" Giles asked Joyce gesturing. "Money? Purse?"

"I don't know I usually keep my purse upstairs…!" Joyce's eyes lit up as a wave of dread hit her and she raced past Buffy up the stairs and into her room as Buffy and Giles both followed her worried. They found her exploring her dresser in her room desperately.

"What? What is it Mom?" Buffy asked her concerned.

"My passport! I can't find my passport!" Joyce exclaimed pushing things around inside. It had to be here she couldn't have taken it could she?!

"It is possible you have it elsewhere?" Giles asked her.

"No!" She whined "I always have kept it here, but I can't find it… she's taken it!"

XXXXXXX

"No! I am not planning on booking another ticket for later in the day! I am just her daughter… Yes, I know that… I understand but this is an emerengy… but I need information on that flight!" Buffy yelled down the phone at the airline. Giles and Joyce exchanged glances as they waited for news.

"What do you mean she left instructions not to give out any information?" Buffy asked enraged. She listened for the information on the other end of the phone. "She said what?!... A home wrecker!?... bleeding her dry of money… I haven't done any of that! You don't know anything?! That is not my mother!"

"Buffy!" Joyce yelled at her defeated "put down the phone!"

"No, Mom! You can't say that!" Buffy exclaimed, jumping in front of her with the phone in her hand. "They know where she is! But they won't tell me!"

"Buffy" Joyce said again more sternly. Buffy stared at her before grumbling ending the call and slamming the phone down. There was nothing but silence in the room. An eerie silence as the three of them pondered on what to do next.

"It would appear Faith has covered her tracks very well" Giles said first rubbing his forehead feeling a headache coming on.

"They said they can't give out her flight details not even to her daughter due to the circumstances she described." Buffy grumbled pacing back and forth.

"I doubt a stranger and friend would have any more luck" Giles simply said.

"Maybe Willow can hack into the airport security pull up the details for us" Buffy suggested.

"Possibly but that would be highly illegal and risky" Giles said warily "plus there is no guarantee that Faith would stay in the same place not to mention how difficult it might be to find her even if we know vaguely where to look."

Buffy sighed helpless. She hated this feeling. She was a slayer she was meant to feel powerful, strong and be a leader. She was used to giving orders and defeating villains not made to feel helpless and powerless. She turned to her mother who had been silent now for many moments. Joyce looked back at her.

"Looks like I'm stuck this way for the time being then" Joyce confirmed what they were all thinking.