The entire room was silent.

They had arranged themselves around Buffy's living room, with small groups sitting together, trying to mix the Charmed and Scooby groups a little. Some side conversations had started, but the room was completely quiet now.

"Ha ha, Buff. So it is Angel. I can deal. We worked together for 3 years, give or take, and we didn't try to kill each other. Well, there was that one- "

"I wasn't joking, Xander. I'm calling Faith in." Buffy interrupted him.

Everyone who didn't know Faith was confused.

"Who's Faith?" Phoebe broke the silence that had again settled over the group.

"The real slayer."

"The what? But there's only one." Prue said, frowning.

"Yeah, well, I died, got revived, and she got called."

Buffy's explanation of the circumstances didn't help anyone to understand.

"I don't care who she is. If she can stop these things, save my husband, and won't try and kill us all in the process, bring her here."

Giles laughed nervously. "See, that's precisely the thing. She has a tendency, to, well, do just that. Try to kill us. On many occasions, actually. I don't think this is wise."

Willow, surprisingly, was the one who defended Faith. "I've been talking to Cordelia on a regular basis, and she's told me that Faith's doing better each time. And don't ask me to tell you the latest on either Angel or Cordy." Willow stopped Buffy and Xander, who each had their mouths open, ready to ask. "Back to topic. How are we getting Faith out of jail?"

"Jail? This doesn't sound like a very good idea. I say we fight with what we have, and leave the psycho out of the mix." Anya cut in with her customary take on things.

"Well, we can't. This is the best idea we've come up with, and I say we use it." Xander jumped onboard the Faith train. (sorry, bad pun)

"Are you sure she's not dangerous?"

"We'll find out, now won't we?" Giles took his glasses off and wiped them on the corner of his shirt. "Willow? Call Cordelia, please, and see if you can get Faith out of jail for a few days. The rest of us will stay here and try and form some sort of plan." He continued to absently clean his glasses, as he thought about the dozens of ways this could go wrong.

Willow went up to Buffy's room and picked up the phone on the side of her bed. She dialed the number at Angel Investigations from memory and waited until the familiar bright voice answered.

"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless."

"Hey, Cordy. It's Willow."

"Will! Hey! How's everything going?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. There's this new beastie in town, and we need the Slayer to fight it."

"That's great, Willow, really. But in case you haven't noticed, you have one. Her name's Buffy. Last time I checked, you were pretty close friends. You don't have amnesia or anything, right?"

Willow sighed. Even though Cordelia had grown out of the mean, shallow facade she had carried though high school, it still sometimes showed up in her tactless questions and evaluations. A lot like Anya, actually 'Xander really knows how to pick 'em.' Willow thought.

"No, Cordy, I don't have amnesia, but Buffy's not 'The' Slayer. For all intents and purposes, she's just the Slayer back up. We need Faith here. Can you do anything to help us out?"

The former cheerleader was silent for a minute. "I don't know. ANGEL! COME HERE!" Willow winced and held the phone away from her ear. She could hear Cordelia talking to Angel over the phone.

"Can we break Faith out of jail? No, it's Willow. What kind of question is that? Fine. Willow? Angel wants to talk to you."

"Willow?"

"Hey Angel."

"So what's this about breaking Faith out, because, as your plans go, not the best one I've heard."

"Tell me about it. Readers Digest version? Big new bad. Need the slayer and the Charmed Ones. Got the Charmed ones, need a slayer."

"But.Buffy?"

Willow almost cried. This wasn't going anywhere.

"Did everyone in LA suddenly get stupid? The way the PTB see it, Buffy's not the slayer anymore. In their eyes, if they even have eyes, Buffy died fighting the Master. So that makes Faith 'The Slayer.' And we need 'The Slayer.' Get it?"

"Yeah. But did you say the Charmed Ones? Interesting."

"That's what Giles thinks too. And that's fine, but we really need to get moving. There's a sort of time limit on this whole thing." Willow waited for Angel's response.

"How long do you have?"

"A couple days, maybe less."

"I'll see what I can do. You at Buffy's house?"

"Uh huh."

"I'll call you when I get something."

Willow entered the living room to an expectant group.

"What did she say?" Piper was starting to get more than a little impatient.

"They'll call back when they find something."