Just to be clear 'cos I realised this is going to get a bit confusing. It's set way after the end of Buffy (obviously) and pretty much everything happened except the thing with the potentials become slayers and somehow Spike is alive (I leave it to your imaginations as to how that happens.)
Day had fully dawned when Jess reached Revello Drive. Nevertheless she crept up to bed weary from the emotional baggage she had faced. Buffy didn't disturb her although she wasn't asleep. She wanted to go and comfort her daughter, to share with her feelings that had been repressed for too long but knew that the time for that would come. Too restless to stay in bed Buffy completed a short workout, trying to keep her mind from the trouble she knew was brewing. "Jess is home" she told herself while skipping. "She's safe. It's going to be fine." Despite this reasoning Buffy couldn't fully reassure herself and slipped quietly into Jess's room. She stood by her daughter's bed looking at her face, framed by dark hair that lay fanned out on the pillow like a blackened halo. It was such a familiar face and yet something was different, older, wiser? A bit like Faith just returned to her own body, Buffy knew something had changed inside Jess but had no idea what.
Jess lay with her eyes shut. She could feel Buffy's presence and it took all her self control not to jump out of bed and attack her adoptive mother. She thought about what Angel had said. "She got Faith." When Jess confirmed that it was Buffy who had been responsible for her mother's death she knew that Buffy wouldn't be left standing. 'At least they wont have to find a grave' Jess thought. 'It's ready and waiting.'
Buffy continued to look at Jess thinking of how things had changed since she'd been around, since Faith had gone. Unbidden images flashed into her head…
FLASHBACK
"Yo B Watch your back." A girl's voice called. Buffy spun around, leg outstretched, catching a vampire in the chest. He fell to the floor where she staked him easily. Before the dust the creature became had settled Buffy was hugging a dark-haired girl tightly to her. She pulled back quickly and started talking in an irritated voice.
"Where've you been Faith? Dammit you could have called. You can't just turn up and be all 'Hey B whatsup.' We've got things to sort out."
"Cool it B, shit its not like you didn't know I was leaving this time and we saved the world and al first, and anyway I've got someone here to meet you." Buffy's eyes drifted to the girl who had stepped out from Faith's shadow and drew breath sharply. She looked at Faith wondering what was going on- the girl looked so similar to the Faith Buffy had first met it didn't seem quite possible. "Meet Jess my number one girl." Faith could see Buffy's surprise and expected an outburst. Instead Buffy went very quiet.
"Your daughter?"
Faith nodded hugging the girl to her side. "Jess meet B the original chosen one, my sister slayer. B we gotta be a threesome now, she's got the moves… and boy did that come out wrong."
Jess looked at Buffy as if she was some kind of insect she wanted nothing to do with. To be perfectly honest Buffy wasn't so keen either. Slaying in a three? With a girl who couldn't even be a true slayer? Buffy's thoughts were interrupted by Jess's voice, so casual and yet firm,
"Mom are you sure it's her? I mean c'mon she's like a 5ft blonde with a really off sense of style."
END OF FLASHBACK
Buffy smiled wryly as Jess's first words resounded in her head. She remembered those first few weeks and the tensions that rose as Jess fought to keep her mom's attention. It was obvious that Jess was besotted with her mother and though at first it had been difficult to adjust to Faith being a mother Buffy had quickly learnt that Faith returned her daughter's feelings. Yet she was still the same old Faith, a little reckless, definitely too flirtatious and a bit of a mystery. Buffy definitely didn't approve of some of the things Faith let Jess do, patrol being top of the list with going to the Bronze a close second and Jess knew it. She saw Buffy as an uptight, restrictive figure and unnecessary addition to her life with Faith. 'Things haven't developed that much even now' Buffy thought, leaving Jess's room soundlessly.
More at ease when she was alone Jess drifted into sleep but was soon disturbed by fragmented images that seemed dreamlike and yet too real to be just dreams.
It was dark but there was a light coming from somewhere. Jess moved towards the white glow seeing two shadows outlined against it. In slow motion arms reached out from the larger shadow to the smaller one, seeming to bury themselves inside it. A third, even smaller, figure joined the pair as one shadow disappeared.
Jess woke suddenly the images fading as the events of the previous night took precedence in her memory. "That Bitch" she muttered slamming her fist into the wooden cabinet by her bed.
It was late afternoon when Jess emerged from her room. She stayed out of Buffy's way killing time before her meeting with Angel. At 9:30 she left the house, walking quickly to the slayers' graves more excited than apprehensive about learning the truth at last.
"So" Jess started. "You gonna tell me what happened?" 'Angel' sighed heavily as if wishing that he didn't have to tell the story.
"Maybe we should go somewhere a little less emotional." He suggested.
"No here is good." Jess stood feet apart and arms crossed. "Let's get this done so I can go kick some blonde ass."
"Ok just hold it for a minute. This is difficult to explain."
"I'll make it easier then shall I. I ask the questions, you give the answers. Why did Buffy kill you?"
"Yep, throw me a softball for starters why don't you? It was some slayer thing, she wanted to kill Angelus-you know the alter-ego story right? - but little miss magic tricks got back my soul. She still did it though. Man does she know how to break a guy's heart. She kissed me and told me she loved me and I believed her, I loved her too with every fibre I'm made of. Then she killed me. A sword right through me and a journey to hell, that was how much she loved me." 'Angel' gave a hollow laugh. "And then she did it all over again."
"Uh I know stranger things have happened but I'm pretty sure you've only died twice."
"I meant your mother."
"They were…no way…ewww…..gross."
"No no no nothing like that. Yes they loved each other, or seemed to but like sisters. 'Course things changed a little when Buffy put Faith in a coma."
"When did that happen? Boy I am gonna hurt her so bad!"
Inside 'Angel' was laughing, this was too easy. The girl really had no idea what was happening. Outside he was calm, playing his role as the wounded party searching for justice. "Must have been when Buffy was about eighteen, she didn't like the way Faith was doing things and decided she was willing to cross the line to stop her."
"The line being?"
"Killing a human. The council's code stopped her but Buffy's own moral code didn't. Once she said screw the council I guess it was up to her and she took the low road. Your mum though, she knew how to get out of tight spots, almost made it out of that one too. Her own knife…I told you she could do things the hard way." 'Angel' shook his head and Jess followed suit not wanting to believe in such deception even knowing all that she did.
"So what happened next?" Jess asked, wanting to know despite the horror she knew would come with the end of Angel's story.
"Faith went away for a while, came to see me in LA-Buffy's exiles the two of us. We both went to help her again for a bit but she sent me packing. Faith fought with her though, even after everything, they saved the world side by side. Wasn't long after that I guess she must have found out about you." 'Angel's tone remained remarkably casual but Jess didn't know him well enough to pick up on what that meant. Or maybe she was too wrapped up in the anger bubbling inside her to even notice. He smiled even wider on the inside knowing that Jess would eat up tales of Faith's greatness and love. "Faith up'd again, I saw her briefly, she told me how much she loved you, even before you were born, before she knew who you were going to be." Jess resisted the tears that threatened to fall and asked the question she had wanted to know the answer to for over a year.
"So why'd she bring me back to Sunnydale?"
