I wanted to try another Dean/Faith fic and this is inspired by one of the shorter arcs from Buffy comics, particularly Angel & Faith. To avoid confusion with the name, I'm not involving Sam Winchester. No romance, implied at best, more like friendship. Again, Dean and Sam are old friends of the Scoobies.

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffyverse or Supernatural.

Dean and Faith were in the bunker in the shooting range, firing at targets from their guns. She had decided to hang out with the Winchester brothers for a few days after being introduced to Buffy's old friends from a case they had worked on few years ago but Faith missed the targets and barely managed to hit them properly.

"No one ever taught you how to shoot?" Dean asked.

"I'm getting better." Faith shrugged.

"You think?" Dean asked skeptically, amused and with a raised eyebrow.

"Shut up." Faith joked, when Dean's phone rang and he answered the call.

"Hello? Emergency? Buffy's unavailable. And she gave you my number. I see. Slow down, who's Riley?" Dean asked with a scowl and Faith's eyes widened and her blood ran cold.

Sam met with Dean and Faith at the table, while she handed them a file.

"OK, start from the beginning, Sam. What happened?" Dean asked as Faith read the file.

"One of our teams went to extract a doctor from the woods at the borders with Mexico." Sam said.

"And Riley was with them?" Faith asked.

"The team missed their regular call-ins, Riley and his squad volunteered to investigate, not that I was happy about it and he told me he wanted to do it alone. All communication has been cut off for almost two days now. I'm worried something has happened to them and I need someone more experienced with these things to help. I called Buffy but she was unable to help, so she gave me your number." Sam explained as she turned to Dean. "Where's your brother?"

"On a different case. We'll see what we can do." Dean said and Faith looked hesitant and guilty, which they noticed.

"Look, I know what happened between the two of you and honestly, I'm not mad." Sam said, much to Faith's surprise.

"Sam, I… I think I owe—"

"You don't." Sam said, much to Faith's surprise. "Riley told me. He's a clean-slate kind of guy and he pulled all the cats out of the bag before we tied the knot. He wondered why Buffy was denying they had slept together before Buffy told him about the body swap."

Faith winced and briefly looked away, ashamed, which Dean noticed.

"Can you imagine how that felt? Standing there, while Buffy had to explain to him how he'd been duped." Sam said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Look, you have every right to be mad at me but I'm so—"

"Stop, alright?" Sam said, waving her off. "I get that you want to be let off the hook and find some absolution but I'm not the one you should apologize to and it's not my place to forgive you. I know what happened and I know you've changed for the better and that you regret it, which is good enough for me. As far as I'm concerned, there are two people you have to apologize to for what had happened."

Faith nodded and smiled appreciatively.

Dean, Faith and Sam walked down the jungle in South America as Dean turned to Faith, who looked conflicted, while Dean and Faith walked forward and Sam stayed behind with her rifle, providing cover from a vantage point.

"Did Buffy tell you what happened with…" Faith trailed off.

"Yeah. And you want my advice? Don't beat yourself up over it." Dean said and Faith looked at him. "All that crap you've done is gonna be a part of you forever and there's no changing that. Feeling sorry for yourself ain't gonna help either. What you can do is trying to be better and find a way to make up for it by doing right by those you've wronged. Even if it will never change what has happened, the least you can do is show them that you're not that person anymore."

"That's easier said than done. I'm trying." Faith said.

They heard inhuman snarling as a pack of vampires in the jungle ambushed them. Dean pulled out a machete, while Sam did the same and Faith pulled out her stake as they engaged the vampires and even though there were many, they soon enough were staked or their heads were cut off as they turned into dust before they noticed some dead soldiers.

"Riley's group?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." Sam said as she watched the feed over the camera's on Dean's and Faith's jackets.

Dean and Faith then noticed Riley, restrained to a pole few yards away as they approached him and untied him while Faith smacked him. "Riley? Riley."

Riley groaned as he came to. His face was bruised and bloodied and he looked pale from the blood loss, with some bite marks on his neck but he did not have fangs, which meant he had not been turned by them. He weakly opened his eyes as he recognized the voice and saw Faith's face. "I… I know you…"

"Can you get up?" Dean asked.

"Who are you?" Riley asked.

"Buffy's friends. Sam called us to find you. Faith, we have to go." Dean said as they heard snarling in the woods.

"Right." Faith said as they ran off, while Dean handed Riley a stake as they fended off the vampires.

"Faith? The Faith?" Riley's eyes widened, realizing who she was. "You're the girl who had taken over Buffy's body!"

"Yeah, I'm that Faith, I'd prepared an apology speech, but I'm multitasking right now." Faith said.

"Get down!" Dean ordered as some vampires lunged at them but Dean cut the head off one of them, while Faith staked her. Riley was about to stake another, when its head exploded and they heard gunshots.

"Sam." Riley realized.

"Yeah, she's a good shooter apparently." Dean said, impressed.

"She's a keeper." Faith shrugged. They ran to the valley, where was a military chopper flying above with a rope ladder as they jumped on it and the chopper flew away.

"…not only you didn't feel needed enough by Buffy that you came to the whores, instead of letting me come with you and help you! At least I could've had your back but you always have to play a hero, do you? Do you think I'm that weak or do you have that big of a hero complex?"

"Sam—" Riley started before there was a sound of smacking as Dean and Faith tensed.

"That should show you that women like me and Buffy and Faith are just as, if not more than, capable as you."

"I'm sorry. I promise I'll lean onto you more from now on." Riley said, having learned his lesson with Buffy and Sam now.

They saw Sam walk off the tent with her face wet as she wiped the tears off her cheek, with a mix of happiness, relief, pain and anger before Riley went out with a mark of Sam's hand on his face, in addition to the bruises he had received already while captured.

"So, has she talked your ears off enough?" Faith joked and Riley had the decency to look ashamed and embarrassed.

"She was pissed but mostly happy that I made it out alive but I guess she needs some time to get over it." Riley admitted.

"Hope you've learned your lesson, stop playing a hero and never underestimate women, Slayers or not." Dean said. "You're not gonna go to vampire whores again, are you?"

Riley chuckled, amused. "I've learned my lesson. Thank you. For saving me." He offered his hand as Dean shook it, while Faith looked hesitant.

Dean was about to leave, when he noticed Faith approaching Riley. "Look, Riley, before I leave… I wanna say…"

"If this is about the body exchange, apology accepted." Riley said, much to her surprise. "I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not happy about what you did while pretending to be Buffy, I thought I had her back but then… not gonna lie, I felt like a chump." Faith looked away briefly. "But what's past in the past. I've moved on. If you really want to say sorry to someone, then I think you owe it to Buffy but apologizing is about you looking absolution and wanting to escape that guilt."

"I've heard that speech before. I can't change what I've done and I'm done trying to escape it. I'm not that person I was back then anymore. I'm… trying to better." Faith said.

"Well, I hope you'll figure it out." Riley said as he offered his hand and after some hesitation, Faith shook it.

"Thanks." Faith said.

She then walked towards Dean as they were approaching the Impala.

"Is it ever gonna get any easier?" Faith asked.

"Certainly not today or tomorrow. Redemption isn't an easy road, but you gotta keep trying and not give up." Dean said.

"That's easier said than done." Faith said.

"Redemption ain't easy. But what matters is that you're not giving up." Dean said as they entered the car.

"Now you sound like Angel." Faith said as Dean smiled.

"Wanna hit a bar somewhere down the road? I could use a beer or two." Dean asked.

"Sure." Faith said as Dean drove off, while Faith turned on the radio as Kansas's 'Carry On My Wayward Son' started to play and they both laughed. "Hell yeah, I love this song!"

"Oh, yeah, it's awesome!" Dean said before he turned up the volume on the radio.

"Carry on, my wayward son! There'll be peace when you are done! Lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more!" Dean and Faith sang in unison as the Impala rode down the road.

Frankly, from Buffyverse follow-up comics, I like Season 8 (outside of some Bangel pandering I won't get into and Kennedy regressing to a brat) and the first half of Season 9 and Angel & Faith and After The Fall, the other comics, while they are off to an interesting start, they are good up to halfway, then they get weird. At least the comics more-or-less redeemed some more annoying characters in Buffyverse, that being Kennedy, who had formed her own group of Slayers after breaking up with Willow and leaving the Scoobies and then reconciling with Buffy and Riley but Robin faded into the background after he broke up with Faith, when they realized they wouldn't click (no surprise) and Andrew didn't change that much at all with him being a wannabe storyteller and embellishing and bragging.

Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed this one-shot.

With regards

Bl4ckHunter