Here we go with some more insanity! And of course all I own is the
insanity here, not the characters or anything. Rich genius type guys own
all the characters and things here. Well, on with the show, slightly
longer chapter this time too, so yay me!
They all heard the car pulling up in the driveway, but it was Hal who went out to help Lois inside. Faith smiled bravely at her younger brothers, all petrified and shaking in their seats before standing up to meet her mother.
She settled easily on the balls of her feet and cleared her mind, just as she did before going into a battle. She actually felt the guarded look coming into her eyes and jammed her hands into her pockets to try and appear casual. Lois stormed in the doorway and stopped dead. The rest of the room forgot to breathe as mother and daughter locked gazes, staring at each other for the longest time.
Not even glancing at her sons, Lois ordered, "Boys, in your room, now!" Within three seconds, the slam of a door echoed down the hall and Malcolm, Reese and Dewey had completely disappeared.
"Faith, are you ok?" Lois asked, her voice straining to keep calm.
"Yeah, Mom. Five by f-"
Faith was cut off by Lois' voice finally cracking. "In that case you are going to sit down and explain yourself to your father and I! Don't you know we have been worried *sick* about you!?"
The brunette Slayer knew from the start this was one battle she was not going to win. She slid into her seat and stared moodily at the table while her mother ranted. "Five years! Five years, Faith, and not one phone call, not one letter, nothing! We thought you were dead."
"Well, I was in a coma for eight months, does that count?" Faith muttered sarcastically to herself.
"What did you just say!?"
Faith winced. She knew her mother would be too caught up in her own tirade to hear Faith's remark, but she hadn't counted on her father sitting in the seat next to her right at that moment. "Nothing," she tried. "Go on, Mom."
"No, wait a second," Hal interrupted. "I think you just said something about eight months in a coma." That got Lois' attention. She glared at her only daughter, and Faith knew she was really out of her depth this time.
"Uh-huh. A year after I left here-"
"After you ran away, disappearing without a trace," Hal couldn't help but amend for her.
"Yeah, that. I got stabbed in the stomach with my own knife and fell off a balcony onto the back of a truck and spent eight months in a coma."
"Well, that only explains why you didn't call for eight months. What do you have to say for yourself about the other four years and four months?" Lois reasoned.
By this stage, curiosity had overridden their fear and the boys had sneaked down the hallway a little ways, listening intently to the conversation. "She's our sister, we have just as much right to know where the hell she was as they do," Malcolm had said to persuade Reese and Dewey, who really didn't need that much convincing, to follow him out of their room.
"Wow, I think Mom's actually gonna explode," Malcolm whispered. His brothers just nodded their heads, too intent on the scene playing out in the kitchen to pay close attention to what Malcolm was saying.
"I was in California," Faith eventually said, hoping that would be enough information to tide her family over for the moment. She'd been back less than four hours, and she really didn't want to have to break the news that she was a murderer and a fugitive right away. She didn't even know if she *could* tell them. Faith knew very well that she was the original perpetrator in a long family line of delinquents, but to have killed someone was a line she wasn't sure her family could accept she'd crossed. Hell, she couldn't exactly blame them, she wasn't even sure she could accept it.
"California?" Hal shrieked. "There's nothing in California but prisons and strip joints!"
Reese started to laugh, but a hand from each of his younger brothers clamped immediately over his mouth to stifle the sounds. Faith's eyes widened as she took in her father's words, and the boys worried for a second that they had been discovered. But a moment later they breathed simultaneous sighs of relief.
"You weren't working at a strip joint were you?" Hal worried when he saw the guilty look Faith had been unable to keep from crossing her face. She shook her head slowly and Hal let out a loud "Phew!"
Several seconds passed before Hal finally managed to process the meaning of Faith's look. "Oh my God!" he screamed at the top of his lungs all of a sudden. Both Lois and Faith jumped and stared at him. "You were in jail!?"
"You guys might as well come outta the hallway coz you deserve to hear this straight up too," Faith called over her shoulder without even looking around.
Malcolm, Reese and Dewey exchanged surprised glances and sheepishly came to sit at the table. They pointedly ignored the death stare their mother aimed at them. Faith took a deep breath, and squarely meeting the eyes of each of her parents, she made her confession. "I killed someone. I went bad."
She waited to see if anyone would explode as their initial reaction, but they all looked too shell-shocked to speak. Except for Dewey, who just stared at her quizzically for a minute before focusing his attention on a fly buzzing around his head.
"Wh-what do you mean, sweetie?" Hal stammered, convinced he was mistaken.
"The first time was an accident-"
"Wait a minute- the first time? There was more than one time?" Malcolm interjected. In his eyes, Faith could detect the traces of horror and disappointment she'd seen all too often in the Scooby Gang when they looked at her.
Malcolm's Aside: "I can't believe I'm hearing this."
"Yeah. The first time it was an accident. Buffy, the other Slayer, and I were patrolling. It was dark, and there were vamps at every turn and I missed. I staked a guy I thought was a vampire because I didn't react fast enough. Or I reacted too quickly, depending on which way you wanna look at it."
"I don't wanna look at it at all," Malcolm said, pushing his chair out to stand up. Without another glance at his sister he turned on his heel and walked into his room. The door swung deliberately closed behind him.
"Huh? What are we looking at?" Reese's confused caveman look had returned, but Hal absently waved him into silence.
"After that, I killed another man just because my boss told me to. See, I didn't wanna think about what I'd done, but B couldn't help bringing it up. She needed to deal with it and I couldn't, so in the end it was easier to pretend I hadn't done anything wrong. That I was better than the laws of people just because I'm sworn to protect them, that they owed me.
"That's how I ended up in a coma. I went so evil that it came down to Slayer versus Slayer, and B stuck my own knife in my gut." She lifted her shirt a little and displayed the scar she still bore as a reminder of the consequences of evil.
"Oh, cool," Reese reached over to touch the scar to the side of Faith's stomach, but she slapped his hand away and covered it over again.
"When I woke up, I tried to go back to being evil, but I didn't want to do it anymore. So I eventually gave myself up and spent two years in a Southern California prison until Wes came to bust me out."
"You're a fugitive as well?" Reese was sounding more and more impressed by the second. His sister was fast becoming his greatest idol.
"What's a fugitive?" Dewey asked, looking up from his work of pulling the fly's wings off. The fly had been rude to him and insisted his name wasn't Tony.
"Yeah, well, I'm trying to make up for my mistakes, and I can do more good outside than in. I've got a lot to make up for," Faith looked around at her family, hoping they understood she meant she had to make it up to them as well.
Lois had not spoken since Faith had began her confession, but she also had not taken her eyes from her daughter's face for a split second. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak. "Well, Faith. I'm not proud of what you've done but I suppose I have to say I'm glad you were honest with us about this and I have only one more thing to say about it."
Faith cringed inwardly, wondering what her mother would say.
"What's a Slayer?"
"What, didn't Francis tell you?" Faith blurted, then immediately clamped her mouth shut. From the way Lois' eyes widened she could tell she had just well and truly dobbed Francis in.
* * * * *
There you go! For all the Francis fans out there who've been wondering where he was, in our next exciting episode he will make his big entrance! Ok, I may be exaggerating, in the next crappy instalment I pump out he'll be there. That doesn't sound so cool, but I guess it's probably a little more accurate. And I promise I will get to some Slaying action in a couple of chapters, it's coming it's coming! Also, if anyone has any ideas for the wackiness of family fun, Malcolm style, I'd love to hear them. Thinking up funny crap is harder than I thought! Thanks, don't forget to R&R ~Anoron.
They all heard the car pulling up in the driveway, but it was Hal who went out to help Lois inside. Faith smiled bravely at her younger brothers, all petrified and shaking in their seats before standing up to meet her mother.
She settled easily on the balls of her feet and cleared her mind, just as she did before going into a battle. She actually felt the guarded look coming into her eyes and jammed her hands into her pockets to try and appear casual. Lois stormed in the doorway and stopped dead. The rest of the room forgot to breathe as mother and daughter locked gazes, staring at each other for the longest time.
Not even glancing at her sons, Lois ordered, "Boys, in your room, now!" Within three seconds, the slam of a door echoed down the hall and Malcolm, Reese and Dewey had completely disappeared.
"Faith, are you ok?" Lois asked, her voice straining to keep calm.
"Yeah, Mom. Five by f-"
Faith was cut off by Lois' voice finally cracking. "In that case you are going to sit down and explain yourself to your father and I! Don't you know we have been worried *sick* about you!?"
The brunette Slayer knew from the start this was one battle she was not going to win. She slid into her seat and stared moodily at the table while her mother ranted. "Five years! Five years, Faith, and not one phone call, not one letter, nothing! We thought you were dead."
"Well, I was in a coma for eight months, does that count?" Faith muttered sarcastically to herself.
"What did you just say!?"
Faith winced. She knew her mother would be too caught up in her own tirade to hear Faith's remark, but she hadn't counted on her father sitting in the seat next to her right at that moment. "Nothing," she tried. "Go on, Mom."
"No, wait a second," Hal interrupted. "I think you just said something about eight months in a coma." That got Lois' attention. She glared at her only daughter, and Faith knew she was really out of her depth this time.
"Uh-huh. A year after I left here-"
"After you ran away, disappearing without a trace," Hal couldn't help but amend for her.
"Yeah, that. I got stabbed in the stomach with my own knife and fell off a balcony onto the back of a truck and spent eight months in a coma."
"Well, that only explains why you didn't call for eight months. What do you have to say for yourself about the other four years and four months?" Lois reasoned.
By this stage, curiosity had overridden their fear and the boys had sneaked down the hallway a little ways, listening intently to the conversation. "She's our sister, we have just as much right to know where the hell she was as they do," Malcolm had said to persuade Reese and Dewey, who really didn't need that much convincing, to follow him out of their room.
"Wow, I think Mom's actually gonna explode," Malcolm whispered. His brothers just nodded their heads, too intent on the scene playing out in the kitchen to pay close attention to what Malcolm was saying.
"I was in California," Faith eventually said, hoping that would be enough information to tide her family over for the moment. She'd been back less than four hours, and she really didn't want to have to break the news that she was a murderer and a fugitive right away. She didn't even know if she *could* tell them. Faith knew very well that she was the original perpetrator in a long family line of delinquents, but to have killed someone was a line she wasn't sure her family could accept she'd crossed. Hell, she couldn't exactly blame them, she wasn't even sure she could accept it.
"California?" Hal shrieked. "There's nothing in California but prisons and strip joints!"
Reese started to laugh, but a hand from each of his younger brothers clamped immediately over his mouth to stifle the sounds. Faith's eyes widened as she took in her father's words, and the boys worried for a second that they had been discovered. But a moment later they breathed simultaneous sighs of relief.
"You weren't working at a strip joint were you?" Hal worried when he saw the guilty look Faith had been unable to keep from crossing her face. She shook her head slowly and Hal let out a loud "Phew!"
Several seconds passed before Hal finally managed to process the meaning of Faith's look. "Oh my God!" he screamed at the top of his lungs all of a sudden. Both Lois and Faith jumped and stared at him. "You were in jail!?"
"You guys might as well come outta the hallway coz you deserve to hear this straight up too," Faith called over her shoulder without even looking around.
Malcolm, Reese and Dewey exchanged surprised glances and sheepishly came to sit at the table. They pointedly ignored the death stare their mother aimed at them. Faith took a deep breath, and squarely meeting the eyes of each of her parents, she made her confession. "I killed someone. I went bad."
She waited to see if anyone would explode as their initial reaction, but they all looked too shell-shocked to speak. Except for Dewey, who just stared at her quizzically for a minute before focusing his attention on a fly buzzing around his head.
"Wh-what do you mean, sweetie?" Hal stammered, convinced he was mistaken.
"The first time was an accident-"
"Wait a minute- the first time? There was more than one time?" Malcolm interjected. In his eyes, Faith could detect the traces of horror and disappointment she'd seen all too often in the Scooby Gang when they looked at her.
Malcolm's Aside: "I can't believe I'm hearing this."
"Yeah. The first time it was an accident. Buffy, the other Slayer, and I were patrolling. It was dark, and there were vamps at every turn and I missed. I staked a guy I thought was a vampire because I didn't react fast enough. Or I reacted too quickly, depending on which way you wanna look at it."
"I don't wanna look at it at all," Malcolm said, pushing his chair out to stand up. Without another glance at his sister he turned on his heel and walked into his room. The door swung deliberately closed behind him.
"Huh? What are we looking at?" Reese's confused caveman look had returned, but Hal absently waved him into silence.
"After that, I killed another man just because my boss told me to. See, I didn't wanna think about what I'd done, but B couldn't help bringing it up. She needed to deal with it and I couldn't, so in the end it was easier to pretend I hadn't done anything wrong. That I was better than the laws of people just because I'm sworn to protect them, that they owed me.
"That's how I ended up in a coma. I went so evil that it came down to Slayer versus Slayer, and B stuck my own knife in my gut." She lifted her shirt a little and displayed the scar she still bore as a reminder of the consequences of evil.
"Oh, cool," Reese reached over to touch the scar to the side of Faith's stomach, but she slapped his hand away and covered it over again.
"When I woke up, I tried to go back to being evil, but I didn't want to do it anymore. So I eventually gave myself up and spent two years in a Southern California prison until Wes came to bust me out."
"You're a fugitive as well?" Reese was sounding more and more impressed by the second. His sister was fast becoming his greatest idol.
"What's a fugitive?" Dewey asked, looking up from his work of pulling the fly's wings off. The fly had been rude to him and insisted his name wasn't Tony.
"Yeah, well, I'm trying to make up for my mistakes, and I can do more good outside than in. I've got a lot to make up for," Faith looked around at her family, hoping they understood she meant she had to make it up to them as well.
Lois had not spoken since Faith had began her confession, but she also had not taken her eyes from her daughter's face for a split second. Finally, she opened her mouth to speak. "Well, Faith. I'm not proud of what you've done but I suppose I have to say I'm glad you were honest with us about this and I have only one more thing to say about it."
Faith cringed inwardly, wondering what her mother would say.
"What's a Slayer?"
"What, didn't Francis tell you?" Faith blurted, then immediately clamped her mouth shut. From the way Lois' eyes widened she could tell she had just well and truly dobbed Francis in.
* * * * *
There you go! For all the Francis fans out there who've been wondering where he was, in our next exciting episode he will make his big entrance! Ok, I may be exaggerating, in the next crappy instalment I pump out he'll be there. That doesn't sound so cool, but I guess it's probably a little more accurate. And I promise I will get to some Slaying action in a couple of chapters, it's coming it's coming! Also, if anyone has any ideas for the wackiness of family fun, Malcolm style, I'd love to hear them. Thinking up funny crap is harder than I thought! Thanks, don't forget to R&R ~Anoron.