CHAPTER THREE: INJECTIONS
Joanna Braidwood walked silently beside her Slayer, contemplating the unusually silent girl. At this time of night, Joanna usually couldn't get Faith to stop talking, the adrenaline and excitement of her night time pursuits making Faith rather chatty.
"You're quiet tonight," Joanna commented softly.
Faith broke out of her reverie and looked at her Watcher blankly. "Huh?"
Joanna laughed a little and tried to read what her Slayer was feeling. She'd always had trouble reading Faith. The brunette Slayer was a very private person, keeping her emotions close to her chest and never allowing anyone to use them against her as a weakness.
"What's got you so distracted?" Joanna asked.
"Oh…uh…nothing," Faith replied vaguely, her thoughts still back in the club with the blonde girl she had danced with for the majority of the evening.
"Who is she?"
Faith was not a person who was prone to blushing, and if Joanna's night vision were as good as Faith's, she would have noticed a slight pink tinge come over Faith's cheeks.
"No one," Faith replied quietly. "Just a girl."
Joanna wasn't convinced, but she knew that Faith was unlikely to share any information with her. Faith would tell Joanna everything about the slaying, but if the Watcher tried to delve into the personal life of the Slayer, she would be told unequivocally where to go.
"If you insist," Joanna said quietly.
Faith snapped, annoyed by the questions, as well as the unusual feelings that the blonde girl from the club had elicited in her. She didn't even know the girls name, but Faith couldn't stop thinking about her.
"I insist!" Faith yelled.
Joanna held up her hands in a symbol of surrender. Faith sighed and put her hands in her pockets, making the rest of the trip to her Watcher's apartment in silence.
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Faith found herself staring at the ceiling for the better part of the evening when she finally managed to crawl into the bed in her room in her Watcher's apartment. She'd slept for maybe two hours, the rest of the time spent replaying the evening again and again in her head. She swore softly as she buried her head in her pillow, wondering why she was so badly affected by someone she didn't even know.
She'd never given too much thought to any of her partners, even after she'd slept with them. After four hours of dancing, Faith couldn't get the blonde girl to leave her thoughts alone. She sighed and looked at the clock on her bedside table. 6:15am. Her Watcher expected her to be awake by 6:45 and Faith knew that trying to get back to sleep now would be a waste of time.
She rolled out of bed and wandered downstairs into the kitchen, making herself breakfast and settling in front of the television, not caring that she was nearly eighteen and far too old to be watching re-runs of Road Runner cartoons.
Two hours later, Joanna had Faith sitting at the table, staring intently at a large blue amethyst crystal, studying the flaw at its centre. Faith felt her mind go completely blank and Joanna softly called her Slayer's name. Faith didn't reply, too deeply in a trance to know what was going on around her.
Joanna reached into the drawer of the desk and pulled out a small wooden box. She took hold of the juncture of Faith's elbow and carefully levelled and administered an injection of an organic compound into Faith's arm. Joanna quickly replaced the box in the drawer and waved her hand in front of Faith's face, breaking the trance.
Faith blinked and looked blankly at her Watcher. "Oh, shit sorry. Didn't mean to space," Faith said.
Joanna smiled and shook her head. "Not to worry. Why don't you go and get some fresh air," she suggested. "Go for a jog or something."
Faith nodded and quickly complied, wanting to get out of the apartment. She hoped that a jog would help to clear her mind.
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Buffy lay awake in her hotel room, staring blindly out the window. She didn't know what had happened the night before. She hadn't meant to end up dancing with Faith, but now that she had, she couldn't get the other girl out of her head. She reached for the folder with Faith's details, staring at the photo.
Somehow, meeting Faith in person had made her so much more real. The nightmare about Faith's Cruciamentum had come once more, but it had been slightly different from the previous ones. Instead of the dream stopping with Faith's death, the vampire had turned the brunette Slayer. It had been even more unsettling than the previous dreams, though Buffy figured that was because she'd actually met Faith.
Buffy forced herself to get out of bed and change into something that could be worn in public. She lazily made her way to a coffee shop and sat at a booth, staring out the window, wondering if she would see Faith again.
Faith's profile mentioned that the Slayer was no longer in school, opting to concentrate on her slaying, rather than on her studies. After having met the girl, Buffy was fairly convinced that Faith had made that choice, not because she wanted to be a better Slayer, but because she just wasn't interested in school.
Buffy sipped her mocha latte and picked at the muffin absently, not noticing the entrance of a familiar face that had haunted her dreams for the last few evenings.
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An hour into her jog, Faith found herself tiring. Although this was fairly nusual for the Slayer, she opted not to read too much into it. She'd spent more time dancing than usual and hadn't got too much sleep, so she figured that her exhaustion was because of that, rather than the true reason.
She stopped, stretched out her muscles and walked into her favourite coffee shop. She felt a familiar tingling in her soul and turned, surveying the customers of the shop. Her eyes found the small blonde girl from the night before. Faith smiled and accepted her coffee from the waiter who tried unsuccessfully to flirt with the girl.
Faith slid into the booth, opposite Buffy. The blonde looked up, startled by the intrusion. Her eyes widened as she saw Faith. She swallowed nervously and wondered what was about to happen.
"Morning," Faith greeted.
Buffy smiled. "Hey."
"So…you're up early," Faith commented. She mentally kicked herself for such an inane comment. Buffy didn't seem to mind though.
"I could say the same to you," she replied easily.
Faith just shrugged and took a sip of her coffee.
"You're new around here, yeah?" Faith asked.
Buffy nodded. "Just visiting for a while," she answered.
Faith scrunched up her nose. She wanted nothing more than to be away from Boston. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be there voluntarily.
They sat silently, casting quick glances at each other, turning away when they accidentally caught each others gaze. Buffy went slightly red when Faith caught her gaze and challenged her to not look away. Buffy fought the urge to giggle and managed to keep a straight face. Faith finally broke the silence by grinning and stealing a piece of Buffy's muffin.
"So, what's your name?"
"Buffy," the blonde girl replied.
Faith raised an eyebrow. "No…really."
Buffy sighed and felt her blush deepen. Faith looked at her incredulously and just laughed when Buffy didn't give her another name.
"You're serious?"
"Sadly yes," Buffy replied.
Faith just laughed. Even though the name wasn't what she'd been expecting the girl to be called, it suited her.
"To each their own, I guess," Faith finally replied. "I'm Faith."
Buffy nodded and finished her muffin before Faith could steal anymore of her breakfast.
"You're not at school?" Faith asked.
Buffy shook her head and shrugged. "Needed a break," she replied.
"From what?" the brunette asked, not understanding what the gentle looking blonde girl could possibly need a break from. "Cheerleading practise?"
Buffy made a face and told herself that the mature response wouldn't involve poking out her tongue. She managed to curb that impulse and settled for sipping her coffee to distract her immature thoughts.
"Just from life, really," Buffy replied. "What about you? You don't go to school?"
"Hell no," Faith replied enthusiastically. "Dropped out a coupla months ago. Well, I think the term was 'expelled' but I prefer my version."
Buffy grinned, wondering whether the expulsion was Slayer related. Buffy had been expelled from two separate schools on account of on-campus slaying incidents.
"Expelled for what?" Buffy asked curiously.
Faith hesitated. She wondered how she was meant to explain to a complete stranger that she'd been caught breaking and entering the school grounds to follow a vampire that had been planning on hiding in the gym to cause mayhem during an interschool basketball game. She'd managed to dust the vampire, but someone had unfortunately called the police due to the excessive amount of noise they had caused during the fight.
"Oh, y'know, just the usual random destruction of property," Faith replied vaguely. "The principal was convinced I was a regular JD, so he booted my ass outta there."
Buffy knew instantly that there was more of a story there. She made a mental note to ask her again when she finally revealed that she was a Slayer like Faith.
Faith went to ask another question but was halted in mid-thought as her cell phone rang. She sighed and reached into her back pocket, checking the caller ID. This was the second time that Joanna had interrupted them.
"Yeah?" Faith said, bringing the phone to her ear, annoyed beyond words. She listened as Joanna told her that she needed to come back to the apartment for training. She rolled her eyes but knew that there was no way she could get out of it. "Yeah, just give me ten minutes."
She hung up with saying goodbye and slammed the phone onto the table, making Buffy jump a little with the sudden impact.
"Parents?" Buffy asked.
Faith shook her head. "Nah, I live with a guardian. She's usually pretty cool, but…she seems to enjoy making my life hell lately. She's been all kinds of jump this week."
Buffy held back a grimace. Thinking back on her own Cruciamentum, she could now remember how strange Giles had been acting the week before her eighteenth birthday. She could only imagine that Faith's Watcher was acting similar to the way that Giles had. It had been unnerving, and Buffy had wondered what she had done to annoy him. Buffy wondered how close Faith was to her Watcher, knowing from her experience with Wesley and Travers that Watcher's weren't meant to be emotionally close to their Slayers. But, if Faith's Watcher was anything like Giles, then Buffy knew that the next few days would be devastating for Faith.
Buffy could see the small track mark on Faith's inner arm and knew that the injections had already begun. She could only hope that Faith's world wasn't about to come crashing down around her.
Faith stood and hesitated before leaving the coffee shop. "You gonna be at the club tonight?"
Buffy nodded and Faith turned away, trailing her hand across the table, before smiling widely at the thought of seeing Buffy again.
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Toodles.
S&K.