FUTURE IMPERFECT
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for Hope, Callie, and Nick.
CHAPTER 4- JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY
Monday morning. The one morning that filled Faith with both annoyance, excitement, and a shred of fear. The annoyance came from the undeniable fact that she'd have to get out of her nice warm bed where both the man that she loved and her little angel were both a simple arm's length away to try and cook breakfast before rushing Hope off to the sitter and herself and Wesley to class. The excitement stemmed from, as much as she hated to admit, the time spent in class with Wesley and his students, helping him out when he needed it and the various games that she would play with some of his male students, flirt with them just enough that it was still fun without going to far and doing something that she'd regret for the rest of her life. For even though she was married she still enjoyed flirting with men every once in a while, taking the most pleasure in the looks on their faces after they found out that she was happily married and they had no chance. A few hadn't taken it so well and then her slayer skills came in handy, usually resulting in a broken nose or a broken arm for the one that dared pursue her any further. Wesley knew about her actions of course and as such she had kept them brief, but not letting him forget it when a female student of his batted her eyes or flirted with him.
The shred of fear, that was always in the back of her mind as well as Wesley's, was that one day most likely when they least expected it someone from their past would appear one day and blow their cover, bringing about all of the horrors and fears that admittedly they had both run away from. In fact they both held that fear with Wesley more than once pulling Faith and Hope into an aisle of a supermarket because he thought he had seen someone that hey had used to know. Most of the time their fears had been unfounded and they tried their best to ignore the odd looks people had given them. On one occasion however they had almost been found out when Faith had to quickly turn her cart around and then resort to trying to act very interested in the cereals in front of her as Xander and Anya walked through the aisle, with Anya busy asking Xander about where they were going next on their honeymoon. But luckily for Faith they hadn't noticed her and she had quickly paid for her items and left the store, hiding behind Wesley's SUV until after Xander and Anya had left.
So on this day, like the many others before it, Faith slipped out of bed slowly and went about taking care of Hope. While she was trying to feed Hope breakfast Faith could hear Wesley whistling a catchy tune while he shaved. By the time Faith was done feeding Hope and walking back towards their bedroom to find something for her to where Faith could hear the tranquil sound of the shower running, and she had to fight back the urge to simply lay Hope on her back on the bed and strip off all of her clothes and jump into the shower with Wesley for a little early morning fun. Faith had just laid out Hope's clothes for the day when Wesley came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and his wet hair all a mess.
"Leave any hot water for me," Faith joked with a happy smile on her face as she worked a sock on to Hope's left foot.
"I'm not sure…I guess you're just going to have to find out for yourself," Wesley said lovingly as he gave Faith a quick peck on the cheek before he walked over towards the closet.
"You do this every morning you know Wes, you take all of the hot water and force me to freeze my as...but off…," Faith started to say with a light scowl of anger before she caught her speech just in time and changed the word that she needed to because she didn't want Hope to hear. As he opened the closet door and began to take out the suit that he was going to wear for that day Wesley softly chuckled to himself as he remembered how hard it had been for Faith to curb her use of most of her colorful language. At first the task had been undertaken to help keep attention away from them, mostly on a trial basis, but then when Hope had been born it had become a necessity.
"I fail to see the problem…," Wesley said with a happy and slightly joking smirk on his face as he laid down the dark blue suit, Faith's favorite, that he had picked out onto the bed beside Hope, but far enough away so that she couldn't reach over and latch onto it. When he turned back around Wesley was struck in the back of his head by a well aimed and well thrown sock.
"You hear that honey, daddy likes letting mommy take ice cold showers while he hogs all the hot water…bad daddy," Faith said with a mock pout on her face as she mostly held back a smirk and leaned over and lightly rubbed noses with Hope, who erupted in a short fit of giggles that soon spread to both Faith and Wesley.
"Don't listen to mommy Hope…she's just cranky this morning," Wesley joked with a mock look of indifference on his face as he walked around the bed and took Hope from Faith, before letting his daughter grab hold of his thumb.
"I am not…I just have a weird feeling in my gut…," Faith started to say with a joking smile before her face became more serious and contemplative.
"You're not pregnant again…are you, because that's how…," Wesley asked, not completely knowing which answer he wanted more. Sure he wanted another child, another possibility to prove himself a better dad than his father was, but with everything that he and Faith had gone through before and after Hope's birth he didn't know if they were ready for another child.
"I don't think so…maybe it was your cooking that's disagreeing with me, you trying a new recipe and all," Faith said shooting her husband a playful dirty look, desperately trying to not think about the possibility of Wesley's hunch being right, because in her mind another child was the last thing that they needed right now. But then again there had been very little that had happened in her life that was what she wanted.
"Here now…my cooking isn't that bad…yours is bloody awful…," Wesley said with his back to Faith as he looked at Faith back over his shoulder in the mirror while he began to tie his tie.
"You just keep telling yourself that Wes…and one day…you might just believe it," Faith shot back with a fake look of anger on her face before she picked up a rubber band and aims and then fires it, hitting Wesley in the ear.
"Hey…," Wesley exclaimed in shock as he spun around and glared at Faith, who simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "You asked for it," before turning and rushing into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
* * * * * * * *
That same Monday morning was also a mixed blessing for Dawn, as the day meant that there was now exactly one week before classes started. And as the slayer she had been thankful that so far her skills had not been needed very often, forcing her to only have to bail out of a couple of parties that she was pleased to later find out from her roommates that weren't very good. More than once she had been forced to come up with exaggerated excuses for all of the odd items that she had been bringing home with her, things that her roommates never knew were parts of demons and other non human beings. All that work was done to help her expand her creature database, full of foot impressions, skin samples and the like, that she had started shortly after the defeat of the First, with a lot of help from Willow and Andrew. After the defeat of the First Andrew and Dawn had become very close, closer than most people knew, in fact the two had gone so far as to plan out times to see each other and just be with each other, with Andrew begging to pick the places, but after one of his ideas would have had them ending up at a sci-fi convention Dawn had taken over that part of their budding relationship. When Buffy found out she tried to talk Dawn out of having any kind of a relationship with Andrew, using the murderer card before she fully thought it through, as Dawn, after some hard thinking, came back with Spike's bloody history.
As usual the sisters had gotten into many heated quarrels over the subject, usually ending with one or both of them storming off out of the room and slamming the nearest door, reminding Xander of an episode of Moonlighting. After awhile something would force the two to be friends again but as time went on it became obvious to Buffy that no matter what she did Dawn would continue to see Andrew. Spike had tried his best to comfort and reassure her, that coupled with the fact that he had personally threatened the former villain with the punishment of death if he ever did anything to hurt Dawn. As Dawn's senior year neared it's end Andrew had been offered a very promising job in Seattle, that was to good to pass up, and despite her strong feelings for him Dawn had told him to take the job. Very reluctantly he had taken the job and left almost immediately, but not before getting the greatest present that he thought that he'd ever receive, for Dawn had planned it that the night Andrew left was a night in which Buffy, Spike, and Willow were in Los Angeles helping Angel with another Apocalypse and Xander and Anya were out of town showing Christopher to Xander's relatives. Almost exactly like Buffy Dawn lost her virginity in her own bed to someone that she loved.
By the time everyone had returned to Sunnydale Andrew was gone and it had been long enough that even with his vampire sense of smell Spike noticed nothing out of the ordinary, only that Andrew had obviously visited while they were away. Shortly after he had left Dawn had received in the mail a locket that Andrew had sent her that he said had a spell of protection placed over it, and she had worn it ever since that day. Buffy and Spike had asked a few questions about the locket but Dawn had been able to satiate them by telling them that it was just a locket from one of her close friends at school. Upon moving to her dorm room in New York Dawn was thankful that she hadn't been asked where the locket came from, her roommates seemed far more interested in her stories about vampires and demons.
* * * * * * * *
Dropping Hope off at the daycare had been simple enough and by noon Wesley and Faith were having a pretty good Monday. Wesley's first class of the day, Medieval Myths and Legends, had gone smoothly as Wesley had planned a test for the day, allowing himself and Faith to get together and compare notes for later classes along with Faith slipping her cell phone out of her pocket and making a quick call to the daycare to check up on Hope. Usually at lunch time, if the weather was nice, Wesley and Faith would take a walk and get their lunch from one of the local vendors. On this Monday they had thought ahead and checked the weather forecast and ate a small meal in his classroom. Most days they would eat alone but sometime Callie and Nick would join them, with usually Wesley and Nick getting wrapped up in a discussion about some excerpt from one of the ancient manuscripts in the library and Faith and Callie usually getting sidetracked either with something concerning Hope, Callie's training, or if she were feeling brave Callie would ask questions about Wesley and Faith's past.
Faith would never have pictured herself in any situation that was even close to what she currently found herself in years earlier. When a day at school became to stressful, or after an argument with Wesley, Faith would often slip into the night with only a stake and a knife, coming back hours later having worked out all of her frustrations. Other than that the days spent in school passed easily enough, with only a random student being lost to denizens of the underworld, much to Wesley and Faith's delight. In Wesley's afternoon class was when Faith, in her position as his teaching assistant really came into her own. Looking at her back in the early days the dean hadn't taken her for someone that knew about weapons but for the majority of Wesley's afternoon class of Conflicts in the Ancient and Medieval World Faith led the class, explaining with a great amount of pleasure about the different weapons and fighting techniques. To that end Wesley had often found Faith pouring over one old tome after another, coupled with searching the internet every chance she got. At first he had laughed at her study appearance, for it reminded him of his own in his early days, where he had looked more ready to gym class than serious study.
The end of Wesley's afternoon class meant more than just the chance for Wesley and Faith to relax it also meant that within just a few short hours Hope would have to be picked up from daycare, family time to be spent together, and then for Faith to get ready for her shift at the radio station. At times Faith would simply leave right after the afternoon class and spend some time at home by herself while Wesley would watch Hope while at the same time grading papers and doing work of that nature at the school. Wesley never really asked what Faith did in those free times, deciding that it was better for everyone involved that he give Faith some free time every now and then. On this day though both Faith and Wesley stayed at school and, after a quick visit to the daycare to check up on Hope, began to research, with Nick and Callie's help, a problem that a local businessman had brought to their attention. The businessman had been losing business for a few weeks without having any knowledge of why. Now that in and of itself was not what brought Wesley and Faith into the equation, what pulled them in was the fact that the businessman operated a store that specialized in charms, potions, and anything else that one would need to cast powerful magic spells.
"You say items have been randomly disappearing off of the store shelves," Wesley said with a slightly bewitched scowl on his face as he ran a hand through his hair and edged closer to Faith.
"Yes…Mr. Saburon said that at the beginning of the day his shelves are full but then at night they aren't," Callie said with a bewildered look on her face as she continued to tap the eraser end of her pencil onto the pad of paper in front of her.
"Ya know…not to be the wet blanket that points out the inherent problem here but…wouldn't his shelves not being full at the end of the day be…oh I don't know…a good thing," Faith said with an unbelieving frown on her face as she leaned up against Wesley and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Generally yes, but in this case he's seen items literally disappear into thin air, in fact he had a jar of frog legs disappear on him as he was putting it on the shelf," Nick said with a slightly defensive look on his face as he looked up from the text that he had been scanning.
"Disappearing produce and such…doesn't sound too dangerous huh Wes," Faith added with a slightly mischievous smirk on her face as she sat up and glared lightly at Nick.
"On the surface no…but at the moment the phenomena doesn't appear to be life threatening to Mr. Saburon or anyone else so I think that we should do nothing for right now and see if anything changes," Wesley said with a tired look on his face as he closed up the tome that he had been reading passages out of and lazily threw an arm around Faith's waist.
"I'd bet that Hope could tackle this case…drool and all," Nick exclaimed with a joyous smirk on his face as Wesley regarded him with a confused look on his face before Faith spoke up.
"My daughter does not drool…Wes might sometimes when we pass a bookstore but not Hope…," Faith said with a tone to her voice that made it hard for Nick and Callie to know if she was joking or actually angry.
"Whatever…anyway guys guess what happened today," Nick interjected stifling a laugh as he stood up off of his stool and opened his briefcase.
"I'll save us all the excruciating time that we'd spend waiting for you to answer and just ask what…what happened today Nick that got you so worked up that you just had to rush over here and tell us…and if it's another prophecy I'm warning you…," Faith said forcefully while rolling her eyes as beside her Wesley and Callie nodded their heads in agreement while being glad that Faith had jumped in when she did.
"Don't worry it's not a prophecy…someone…a student from a nearby school actually…asked for a copy of the Dringogen texts, they're the ones that explain all about that cult of fire breathing demons that terrorized this area a hundred years ago," Nick said with the tone of and excitement in his voice rising as he explained his message. The whole time Callie looked at him as if she were wondering how she had ever fallen in love with him in the first place.
"That's odd, what would anyone want with those old books," Faith said with a thoroughly confused scowl on her face as she slipped off of her stool beside Wesley and walked over to close out Wesley's computer for the day.
"I have no clue, but I told her that I couldn't help her until after classes today, I told her to come here to your classroom to get the tomes, I hope you don't mind," Nick mumbled out with a look on his face as if he were waiting to get his head ripped off by either Windholm, or possibly both. He didn't have to wait long for his response, but it was most definitely not the one that he had expected.
"No not at all…so when is this friend of yours coming exactly," Wesley said through a yawn while he made a few more marks on a couple of tests before he put the cap back on his pen and slid all of the tests into his briefcase.
"She should be here any minute now, I can't even begin to tell you how surprised she was that our library had the book," Nick said brightening up and being relieved that he was still in one piece.
"So does this mystery woman have a name…or…," Callie asked in such a way as if she seemed to be on the defensive. From across the desk Faith did her best to stifle a laugh as the computer got ever closer to being completely shut down.
"It started with a D I think…said she was from somewhere in California, Sunny something or other," Nick babbled out thoughtfully and purposefully as he tried to remember the young woman's name, not noticing Wesley and Faith cringing slightly.
"It wasn't Dawn Summers…from Sunnydale California…was it," Wesley almost choked out as he hurriedly and nervously stuffed the rest of his papers into his briefcase and snapped it shut.
"Yeah…that's what her name was…Dawn Summers…and she did say that she was from Sunnydale California…how'd you guess," Nick exclaimed, now excited and confused at the apparent fact that Wesley and Faith knew more about this young woman than he did.
"Lucky guess," Faith mumbled fearfully with a touch of impending doom in her voice as the computer screen turned off and became like a low quality mirror. Wesley was just about to, as best he could, politely apologize and excuse himself and Faith when the classroom door opened and worn out redhead stumbled in, complaining about how hard it had been to find the room. Both Wesley and Faith jerked to attention as they slowly turned to face the young woman, who had continued talking, as she walked across the room towards the desk and laid her book bag down heavily on the desk.
"Excuse me…am I in the right room, my name is Dawn Summers and I…I…Wesley, Faith…what…," Dawn said cheerfully enough at first before she gasped through the last part, her eyes almost as big as silver dollars.
"Oh shit…," Faith mumbled angrily under her breath as she turned back towards the computer screen and leaned her forehead up against the smooth screen.
"Hello Dawn…longtime no see…how are you," Wesley managed to get out with a pleasant enough smile on his face before his face fell as he could only imagine the confused and shocked looks on Callie and Nick's faces.
END OF CHAPTER 4
