One hour later Jess was at dancing at the nearest club; spiral. Just like Faith used to she drew guys like a magnet. They were transfixed by the power radiating from her and the beauty that was impossible to miss. As she danced the lights glanced off her glossy dark hair and you could be forgiven for thinking it was Faith dancing, back from wherever a slayer on the brink of good and evil was sent. Perhaps that was why Xander did a double take when he came to drag her home. For just a second he saw as if a premonition a girl surrounded by people but lonely to the core. The flashing lights only showing the darkness she lived with and her coldness and beauty a façade to hide it. Then his revelry shifted and he saw a teenager hurting deep inside and filling her life with action so she might never forget the one woman who she learnt it from and who she truly believed in. Appropriately enough that woman's name was Faith.

Jess was moving slowly, sensually against the body of a guy who showed no objections. She was in perfect time to the sultry music but paying no attention to it. This was wind down time, after slaying she'd usually come here, dancing with different people each night; growing physically close to most, emotionally to none. Faith had first taken her into a club when they arrived in Hellmouth city; for a moment it seemed Jess wasn't going to be allowed in but it had taken only a moment for Faith to persuade the bouncers otherwise-another lesson Jess had learnt and recalled. She was concentrating intensely on the music, forgetting everything except the feeling of control over her body and she exercised this control in a manner that caught everyone's attention at some point that night. She was so absorbed in the movement that she didn't notice Xander stranding barely 3 metres away until he coughed her name rather loudly.

"Xander what the hell are you doing here? Get out of here now." Jess grabbed Xander by the jacket and bodily hauled him to the door, paying no notice to her dance partner's disappointment. The two of them fell out of the club's door into the night, the cold air hitting Jess's bare shoulders like a blow she herself could deliver. "I can't believe you showes up like that. It's so embarrassing. I don't need someone watching my back, I can handle myself." Xander ignored Jess' outburst and took off his jacket.

"Here" Xander handed the jacket to Jess. "Cover up." In silence the two walked to Buffy's house where a welcoming committee was waiting with stone cold faces.

Buffy sat facing the door, her wiser but still youthful face tired and worry lines just beginning to show but not masking her beauty, the hurt she had endured not hiding her inner strength and resilience. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail and no strands escaped the tight band to mar the perfection of her white shirt. Giles sat next to Buffy. He radiated wisdom but was tinged with the vulnerability of age. Giles believed in the natural order of time wherever possible and if that meant more wrinkles and a receding hairline so be it; his mind was as sharp as anyone ha a right to expect. The other brilliant academic in the room had a different aura. It was filled with magic, the strength of which was unrivalled. She sat serenely, less angry than the rest with concern written on her beautiful face, her red hair gleaming softly as she turned to look at the dark haired woman next to her, clasping her hand. On the other side of Kennedy sat a sulky figure; blond, weedy in stature Andrew had hung around Buffy still hoping to pay off his guilt by helping. Dawn was gently applying ice to Spike's head whilst he scowled at Jess. She was an adult now and her life was very different to the old Scooby gang's. She still fought their battles, still helped with the research but her pin stripe suit indicated the difference. She lived separately, had a job and a relatively normal life, knowing she would never be called upon as a slayer and instead helping Buffy with the side of life which didn't involve worse demons than the tax man.

Xander slipped into the chair next to Willow leaving Jess standing alone as if facing Trial by Jury……..

"Well guys watsup?" Jess's unconcerned attitude was typical and often left Buffy at a loss of what to do, she had come to sympathise with Giles a lot over recent months realising the difficulties he must have faced with her. Tonight however she was feeling up to the challenge thanks to much priming by the gang. They had all arrived as soon as their various lives had allowed and Spike had woken up. "I mean isn't it kinda late for the oldies to be up or…..ooh is it sleepover at the slayer's time again?"

"Jess watch your manners" Buffy shot at her feeling a wave of parental responsibility but Giles gently pulled her back into her seat saying,

"Buffy you know I'm all for etiquette and respecting your elders but we've got bigger problems to address." Jess started to interrupt but Spike got there first.

"You bet you're backside we do, our mini-slayer's got an attitude that merits a visit to some kinda institution, military school's a bit relaxed but it'll do to start with."

"Spike at this precise minute I'd rather Jess had hit you harder but we do have important issues to discuss so I'd be grateful if you could shut your trap." Giles still had the ability to quash Spike's torrent of words and the Vampire settled back in his chair looking mutinous. "Jess this is a difficult subject but we do need to sort it out. Now we accept that you've learnt to do things very differently from how we do them but we're concerned about the consequences of you continuing in this manner."

"Look Giles I just got on with things. I was always taught that action was the best way for me to solve things. That's what I'm for, I slay things, I don't sit around on my backside 'cos then no evil things would die."

"Yeah but what if you made a mistake Jess, what if you weren't prepared for something. You know so much killing makes lines a lot foggier and what if you cross one that you can't deal with." Xander was trying hard to be patient and get the message across.

"Like what exactly? I'm a slayer, I can handle fights and demons and vamps, I can cope with pretty much anything." It was Buffy's turn.

"You really think you can handle anything? Jess you have no idea some of the stuff Faith and I went through. You think you could cope with killing someone? A person, an innocent human?"

"Why would I do that?"

"It's what your mother did." Spike said snidely. "S'why maybe it ain't such a good idea to follow her example."

"No, no way she wouldn't do that." Jess was genuinely confused. She had built Faith a pedestal so high that she didn't understand how anyone could even try to destroy it. She felt like this was criticism of Faith passed on to her. Perhaps it was. Jess had taken on board so much of Faith, she had inherited her feisty character, her original feeling of joy in the hunt and Faith had shared her life with Jess although the past was edited. Jess didn't know though about the pain Faith had dealt with. If she did well this story could have been very different. "She saved people, yeah and anyway even if she did it was just one person. She must have saved way more…"

"You think that makes it better. Faith tried to justify it that way too. She acted cool but things didn't turn out so good Jess. She didn't mean to kill that guy but that didn't change anything. I was there. It didn't matter what she said, seeing the man die in front of us, it changed us both but especially Faith. I think that was the start of….." Buffy looked to her friends to help finish the sentence.

"The evil chapter" supplied Xander.

"Yes well I'm not sure you wanted to put it so bluntly Xander but it has to be said somehow. Jess, wonderful though Faith was at slaying the more supernatural things in this world, there was rather a large period of time when she used her abilities to help evil fight against us and very nearly won." Giles tried hard to be diplomatic in his approach but they could all see that Jess wasn't going to take this lying down. They had tried over and over to steer Jess's path from danger but tonight was showdown. Something direct had to be done and if that was sharing Faith's history with her daughter so be it. No one had told Jess of the murders, of Faith alliance with the evil side or the reason for her spell in prison because the memory of Faith's last days had stayed in their minds…her redemption was complete so there was no need to drag up the past, no need to destroy Jess' trust in her mother…until now.

"Look I don't know what you're trying to do here but I don't have to believe any of this. You're just doing it for some wacko reason I don't even want to know why. My mom was not evil she's amazing, was amazing. Yeah she got in sht but so have you all. She died fighting evil, she gave everything to fight it."

"Yes darling and that's why it was the good guys that got her."

"Spike don't go there." Dawn suddenly got involved sensing that this was the wrong path to go down.

"No do carry on Spike." Jess was suddenly looking pale but there was a steely glint in her eye that everyone recognised.

"Don't think that would be wise doll, the big slayer's giving me an evil." Sure enough Buffy was glaring at Spike so hard it seemed she could set him on fire, furious that he'd gone against everything they'd discussed.

"Well its hardly my fault love, concussion would explain the memory lapse."

"Spike keep talking and you'll have a real concussion, so bad you wont wake up." Buffy was reaching the end of her tether, she wasn't renowned for having a long one but Jess's was shorter.

"No way Buffy. Spike spills or its not just his head that rolls."

"Jess are you threatening us? Giles was finding all this very trying. He was strongly reminded of the gang in High school, it had been hard enough to maintain any authority then.

"No of course she's not, she's inviting us all for a slumber party and there I was thinking watchers were kind of clever geezers…."

"Spike I swear it, one more comment and you are so kebabbed get it." Even Spike seemed to realise that Buffy had had enough. She decided to try and steer back to the original topic of conversation. "Look Jess we just think that if you ease up on slayer thing, let me handle it for a while maybe do some things with kids from school you know…"

"Buffy I'm not a kid, I couldn't give a sht what you think I should do. I want to know why my mom was killed by the side supposed to be fighting alongside her, the good side. No one who could kill my mom was good. I don't want to be with people who are on that side… "

"Jess it's not as black and white as that" Buffy started but Jess cut her off.

"…My mom was better than you lot, the things I saw with her taught me more than anything you could and you know what. I think you're scared of that. You're scared of the fact that I have power at least equal to you Buffy and I use it. You could do anything with the things you have but you don't because you're scared, well I'm not. I'll use it however I have to for my mom's sake. She had faith in me and I can prove to her that she had reason, whatever I have to do I'll do it because I loved her more than anything." Jess turned sharply and marched out the door.

"So did I." Buffy whispered with tears dripping from her face.