Angel's Hotel-Sunnydale, 10pm
"Buffy, Boston?" Xander asks incredulously. "We can't just up and go to Boston," he argues.
"Why can't we? Faith is in trouble and she needs us now," Buffy tells him and when there is no response, she turns to the others. "I'm going to book us the next flight. Pack you things and let's go," she says with determination.
Willow and Xander share a worried glance before she gets up and follows Buffy out. "We don't know what we're getting ourselves into Buffy. Faith knows about the vision so maybe she has a handle on it. She'd call if there were any problems," Willow reasons.
"We'll never know unless we go there will we?" Buffy asks with irritation. When Willow makes no response, Buffy sighs and rubs her eyes. "Look, Faith is too impulsive, she has no idea what she will be up against and she won't have any kind of backup. I can't leave her alone to deal with something again, okay Will?" She asks, or pleads rather.
Willow huffs out a resigned breath and nods. "But, I don't think everyone should just up and go, I mean, something could just come up at any moment here without anyone to stop it," she tells the blonde slayer.
"There's Angel and his crew," Buffy says. "Besides, after every apocalypse there has always been, like, three months where nothing big happened," she reasons and Willow gives Buffy her 'resolve face'. Buffy relents. "Fine. Xander, Kennedy and Giles stay here. You and Dawn are coming with me," she says, the matter settled as Willow goes to tell the others.
Tru's Apartment-Boston 7:30am
Faith is staring blankly at the ceiling, suddenly having realized she has no plan of attack and no idea who to attack if she had a plan. Added to that inner monologue, Faith is growing increasingly uncomfortable with her arm having fallen asleep somewhere around four in the morning.
"Did you even sleep last night?" Lindsay asks as she yawns and looks up at a wide awake Faith.
Faith shakes her head. "No, still on California time," she smirks at Lindsay as Lindsay sits up and stretches.
"I never even heard of Sunnydale," she says, still a little groggy from her sleep. "I guess I never will either if it really is just a big hole in the ground now," she adds after a pause.
"So what about you?" Faith asks after a few moments of silence and Lindsay gives her a blank expression. "I recapped the last seven years last night, now it's your turn," she prods playfully.
Lindsay chuckles lightly. "Nothing quite as exciting as what's happened with you," she says as she looks at the clock on Tru's VCR. "I need to go to work," she groans.
"On a Saturday?" Faith asks incredulously.
Lindsay nods regretfully. "I'll see you later though right? I mean, you aren't just going to up and leave again like last time right?" She asks, trying to sound less serious than what she is.
"I don't plan on it," Faith says and Lindsay realizes that that is as close to a promise as she is going to get out of Faith.
"I'll see you later then," she nods as she heads to the door with Faith following her. "I'm sorry I won't be able to see the look on Harrison and Meredith's face when they see you," are Lindsay's parting words before she exit's the apartment. At the mention of her brother and other sister, Faith's smile fades as she closes the door.
"Hey, I would think you'd be too jet lagged to still be awake," Tru yawns as she exits her room, fully dressed, and goes into the kitchen to make coffee.
Faith just shrugs and sits down at the table to watch her sister moving around the kitchen. "You remind me of Mom," she says suddenly, softly.
Tru stops briefly to turn and look at her younger sister. "Oh yeah? How's that?" She asks.
Faith gauges Tru's reaction. "I always used to watch her in the kitchen every morning. You know, when she made coffee and breakfast," she begins. "She'd always know when I was trying to steal a piece of bacon off of the plate behind her back. She'd laugh and turn me around and tell me to go upstairs and get ready," she continues, getting lost in the memory. After the fleeting memory of their mother passes, Faith looks at her sister, who is now staring at her. "We where happy then, weren't we?" She asks with a pleading edge to her voice.
Tru stares at her sister and sees the earnest look on her face. She sighs as she sits in a chair opposite Faith. "I thought so," she says softly. "But, everything changed so fast. In an instant, everything was different. Mom was gone and Dad may has well have been too," she finishes, glaring into her mug of coffee.
Faith reaches over across the table and takes a firm hold of one of Tru's hands. "I'm sorry I left too," she says, painfully honest and trying to hold back the tears she knows are coming.
Tru looks back up at Faith. "Why did you leave Faith?" She asks quietly, but then chuckles and shakes her head. "Never mind, I know why. Things were too tense at home so you ran away," she concludes bitterly. "I was there too. So were Harrison and Meredith, but we tried to stay together, but we couldn't anymore. Not after you left us too," she growls.
Faith retracts her hand as if burned. She stares hard at her sister for a long moment, the two of them in a harsher version of the 'staring contest'. "I had no choice but to leave," she grinds out.
"Yeah, right," Tru scoffs indignantly.
"If I stayed, none of you, not you or Harrison or Meredith, would even be here to bitch at me. You were better off with me gone," she tells Tru.
"Please, you were always so secretive. Always running off in the middle of the night, always over at that British woman's house. What were you dealing drugs or something?" Tru sneers as she stands up and starts to walk away.
Faith growls and shoots out of her seat, grabs Tru by the shoulders and turns her around with so much force they nearly topple over. "Listen to me," Faith orders and Tru nods, to afraid of her sister's forcefulness to argue. Faith calms herself and drops her arms. "There are some things I need to tell you that I need you to believe me on," she says, though it sounds more like a question.
"Are you going to tell me where you went for seven years?" Tru asks timidly.
Faith swallows hard and nods. "I'm going to tell you everything," she promises and Tru smiles weakly. "Do you remember the night Mom died?" She asks and Tru nods slowly. "What do you remember about her killer?" She asks.
"His face was all weird, it looked like some kind of a mask," Tru says and Faith gestures for her to continue. "It was dark…I walked in when he was whispering something in her ear or something. Next thing I know, she's on the ground and I'm screaming as the cops bust through the door. He just, disappeared I guess," Tru recalls. "Why, what did you see?" She asks with suspicion.
"Same thing you did. Only, he wasn't whispering in her ear. He was biting her neck Tru," Faith says delicately, prompting her sister to put the pieces together.
"What, like a vampire?" Tru asks with confusion and disbelief.
"Not like a vampire, but was a vampire," Tru stares blankly at Faith after this statement. "Tru, I am a Vampire Slayer. I was called when I was thirteen, a month after Mom died, to kill vampires for the rest of my life," she admits.
"You're kidding, right?" Tru asks. "Faith, seriously, this isn't funny," she says angrily.
"I can't joke about this Tru. The British woman was my Watcher, she was like a trainer to me as a Slayer. I took off every night to slay vampires," Faith tells the other woman.
"Oh, yeah, because that's the only time they come out," Tru says mockingly.
"Tru, the first vampire I slayed was in Mansfield Cemetery," Faith says slowly.
"Where Mom is buried?" Tru asks, inexplicably interested again.
"I was with my Watcher and a vampire came out of nowhere, I raised my stake and was about to dust them, when I recognized it as Mom," Faith admits. "I couldn't stake her. But when she hit me, I had no choice," Faith says, choking back a sob. 'My dead mother hits harder than you.' Faith leans her head on her hands as the memory of her first time slaying with Buffy hits her.
"Faith, look. You obviously need some kind of psychiatric help," Tru says as she touches her sister's shoulder lightly.
"No, it didn't even help in prison," Faith grumbles absently.
"Prison?" Tru asks, taken aback.
Faith looks up sharply, realizing what she had just said. "I guess I need to clear a few things up, huh?" She asks sheepishly and Tru stares at her, stunned. "Please, just believe me, okay?"
Tru sighs. "I guess I'll try," she resigns.
"Thank you," Faith says to express her gratitude. "So, nothing to major happened after that, until a couple years later, just after our fifteenth birthday. A vampire named Kakistos showed up and was the reason why I had to leave…"
Boston International Airport-Boston, 7:45am
"Don't blame me Buffy. You wanted the first flight out. It isn't our fault that it was a red-eye flight," Willow chides Buffy's bad mood.
"Yeah, I know, I know," Buffy yawns as Dawn comes bouncing up to them, full of energy. "Let's just find Faith," she says, scowling at her sister's perkiness.
"Good idea. I have her sister's address right here. That's probably where she most likely is at," Willow tells her as they head out of the airport to catch a cab. "1423 Thomas Avenue," she says to the cab driver as the three load into the vehicle.
Tru's Apartment- 7:55am
Tru stares at Faith in a mixture of concern and disbelief. "Faith, you have to understand that this is all just a little hard to believe," she says slowly.
Faith glares at her sister. "Tru, let me be straight with you okay?" She asks, though it is more of a statement. "I know you hear dead people in the morgue and I know you can go back to stop it from happening," she says, ignoring her sister's slackened jaw. "Is that any more unbelievable than vampires? They both are unreal and unimaginable, but they are both true and we don't have any control over these things. It's our job to make things right," she concludes.
"So, you know about the voices and aren't freaked out by it?" Tru asks and Faith nods. "I guess you're right," she concedes as she looks down and notices the time on her watch. "Oh shit!" She exclaims.
"What is it?" Faith asks cautiously as she stands up rapidly.
"Meredith and I are supposed to meet this morning before she goes to work," Tru says as she stands up and looks at Faith with a mischievous look on her face. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" She asks conspiratorially.
"We take advantage of our freakishly identical appearances by screwing with our older sister's mind?" Faith asks innocently.
Tru nods her head. "Let's," she says as they anxiously leave the apartment.
Front Door of Tru's Apartment- 8:05am
"Buffy," Dawn whines. "I don't think anyone's here, you've been knocking for, like, five minutes already," she huffs irritably.
"So, they could just be asleep," Buffy snaps.
"Or, they could be gone," Willow rationalizes. "Buffy, come on. Let's go somewhere and get some rest. We're no use to Faith all worn out and tired," she says and Dawn nods in agreement.
"Fine, but without fail, we are coming back here late this afternoon," Buffy reluctantly agrees as they all leave to find a decent hotel nearby.
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How will Meredith react to the return of her estranged sister? How will things turn out with Buffy and friends?