Tru's Apartment- 8:30 am
Tru smiles at Faith as she continues to channel surf, not really finding anything on this early in the morning. Faith glances over at the perpetual grin on her older sister's face before discontinuing flipping through channels, letting it stay on the news.
"What?" She asks, turning to Tru, inadvertently letting her voice sound suspicious.
Tru shakes herself out of her haze and snatches the remote out of her sister's hand just as they show Anne Curry at the news desk getting ready to warn everyone about Faith. She turns off the television. "Nothing, I'm just so glad that you're here," she replies honestly with a grin.
Faith narrows her eyes and studies her sister for a moment. "What are you hiding?" She asks slowly, not taking her eyes off of her sister.
Tru sighs melodramatically. "Here I am sitting in front of my sister, whom of which I haven't seen in the better part of a decade, and she gets on my case because I am happy to see her. I would think that there would be a little more appreciation of the time we have together, but no…you're too busy thinking that I'm up to something," Tru finishes with a sigh.
Faith blinks hard and then looks at Tru. She cocks her head to the side and smiles slightly. "Are you finished?" She asks after a beat and Tru nods in response. "Good. Now what are you not telling me?" She asks again.
Tru sits there and gets ready to lie, but Faith shakes her head before she has the chance. "Today is one of those days," she says somberly, massaging the bridge of her nose and not looking at her sister.
Faith sits stunned for a moment. "So at the end of today I am supposed to die," she adds to her sister's previous comment.
"No," Tru harshly states as she turns to look at Faith. "If you were supposed to die, I wouldn't be reliving today," she explains to Faith.
Faith calmly leans back into the couch. "Well, what do you propose we do then?" She asks challengingly. "Are you going to play babysitter and the two of us just sit here until tomorrow comes?" She asks sarcastically.
"If we just wait out today, then they could still come after you tomorrow or the next day. It will never end," Tru sighs, shaking her head.
"So then we stop the bastards. Sounds good to me, let's go," Faith replies, standing up and ready for action.
"Do you know where you're going?" Tru asks with a smirk and a quirked brow.
"Um, that would be a no," Faith admits sheepishly as she sits back down. "What did we do yesterday?" She asks.
"We went to see Buffy and them, and then we barged in on the suspects' hotel room to find it empty," Tru explains.
"Well, let's go to the guys' room first, maybe we can still catch them," Faith says. "Get dressed and we'll check it out, okay?" She asks, knowing what the answer is beforehand.
"Sure thing, but I don't know if they've checked out yet or not," she admits slowly. "When I asked the guy at the front desk when they checked out, he said he wasn't on shift yet and didn't know," she tells her worn sister.
"Were they at the same hotel as Buffy, Willow and Dawn?" Faith asks with an inscrutable expression on her face.
"Yeah, they were in room 712," Tru says slowly.
Faith nods. "Go get ready and we'll check it out and maybe we'll get lucky," she orders Tru, showing no emotion at all.
"Okay, I'll be right back," Tru slowly replies, eyeing Faith warily before disappearing into her room to get changed. She throws on the first t-shirt and pair of jeans she comes across, grabs the pictures of the two men and exits her room to go to the hotel. "Okay Faith. I'm ready, let's get-" Tru pauses as she enters the living room and notices that her sister is missing "-going," she finishes as she puts her jacket on all the way and bolts out the door.
Room 712- 8:55 am
"Ty, hurry up," Jackson orders impatiently as he continues pacing the small room, waiting for his partner to finish packing his things. He looks out the window for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes. "The cab's here," he tells him as the yellow taxi pulls up in front of the main entrance of the hotel.
Tyler sighs irritably. "Go on, I'll be right there. I just have a couple more things," he informs the taller man as he goes into the bathroom.
Jackson rolls his eyes. "Fine, I'll tell him to wait while you finish getting your shit together," he says as he takes his bag and moves to leave.
"And don't let that girl see you leaving either," he adds before the other man exits.
"Fine," Jackson grumbles as he makes his way downstairs to the cab.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Faith is exiting the taxi and paying the driver. She goes in and up to the clerk. "Where's room 712?" She asks bluntly. "My uncle is staying there and I wanted to visit him quickly before he left town," she smiles charmingly at the young man.
"Third floor and the fifth door on the right," he all but stammers at the brunette.
Faith grins. "Thanks," she winks as she begins to leap up the stairs, two at a time, before running into a tall familiar looking man.
"Excuse me ma'am," he smiles weakly at the woman, who he recognizes, and tries to move past her.
"No," Faith nearly shouts as she grabs the guy by the arm and turns him around to look at him. "I want you to tell me who the fuck you and your little buddy are," she commands, beginning to get angry.
Jackson tries to keep his poker face, but finds it difficult due to Faith's penetrating gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about Miss," he weakly replies, but her grip strengthens and he winces as he feels a bone about ready to crack. "Okay, I'll tell you, just please, let go," he pleads.
Faith looks carefully at him, deciding if she should trust him. "Okay," she slowly replies as she releases her grip on him. Just as she does this, she feels a needle go into the back of her arm and she turns around quickly to see Tyler standing behind her. "What the-"
She gets cut off by a punch to the face by Tyler and she goes down like a ton of bricks down the stairs. "Do something," Tyler orders Jackson, who watches Faith hit the ground with an unpleasant grunt.
"Hey!" Buffy shouts as she exits her room to see the tail end of what has happened. "What's going on here?" She asks as the two men share a look and then flee, Buffy in tow.
Tru enters just as the men brush past her and Buffy close behind. She stands there, puzzled by what has just happened. She looks over though and finds her sister lying at the foot of the steps and the clerk standing over her, possibly just as baffled as Tru.
Tru approaches the two by the foot of the steps and bends down to look at her sister. She turns her unconscious form over to see a black eye forming. Faith groans at the movement and her eyes flutter open and she finds herself looking into her sister's eyes, so similar and yet so different. She shakes her head before she lets herself start waxing philosophical.
"How do you feel?" Tru asks her fallen sister.
"Like I was beaten and thrown down a flight of stairs," Faith jokes, until she sits up and has to lie back down due to her skull-splitting headache.
"Do you think you broke anything? Do you need to go to a hospital?" Tru asks, being the overprotective older sister that she is.
"Please. I'm a slayer. I couldn't break anything even if I wanted to," Faith smirks as she continues to lie down, staring up at the ceiling.
Buffy wanders back into the lobby with a perplexed expression on her face. "They got away," she informs the two girls when they see here enter.
"Great. Now what are we supposed to do?" Tru asks rhetorically. "Faith chased away any chance we may have had to catch them," she states, glaring at an unapologetic Faith.
"Fantastic," Buffy grumbles as she looks down at the other slayer on the ground. "Come on, we've got to find these guys," she says warily.
Faith moves into a sitting position and then goes to stand up fully, wincing in the process. "Mother fu-"
"Faith," Tru admonishes before her sister can complete that thought.
Buffy is marveled at the chastised expression on the younger brunette's face before she shakes herself out of it. "Are you okay?" She asks.
"Yeah I just…" Faith begins, but pauses as a look of realization crosses her bruised visage. "Buffy, hit me," she orders the blonde.
"What?" Tru and Buffy ask simultaneously, confused by the other girl.
"Maybe she hit her head harder than I thought," Tru quietly states to herself.
Faith glares at her. "Work with me here okay," she states to her sister before turning back to the slayer. "Hit me," she repeats. "And don't pull it either," she adds.
Buffy looks over at Tru, who shrugs. "If that's what you want…" Buffy sighs as she pulls back her fist and strikes at the dark slayer. Faith throws a punch at the same time. Both hits land simultaneously. However, Faith drops at the impact whereas Buffy doesn't even flinch at the other slayer's hit.
Tru's eyes widen as she, too, realizes what happened and Buffy looks confused between the two women. "Trimenthrahydramine," she whispers to herself.
"What?" Buffy asks, her puzzlement showing more so than moments ago, if at all possible.
"Faith told me about how you had to go through this test or something when you turned 18," Tru states, hoping that Buffy gets the hint.
"The Crucanthemum?" Buffy asks and Tru nods. "What does that have to do with anything?" She asks.
Tru sighs and rubs her eyes. "They gave you a drug that retarded your slaying ability. That is what they gave Faith. It's called Trimenthrahydramine," she informs the blonde slayer.
"That's what I thought," Faith says.
"And you decided that me punching you would help you test that theory?" Buffy asks as Faith returns to a standing position, albeit unsteady.
"It worked didn't it?" Faith asks, quirking an eyebrow as she rubs the back of her neck and tries to push down the pain.
Once she decides the two are finished bickering, Tru shifts the conversation. "Now we have to figure out where these guys are so we can stop them from trying to kill Faith tonight," she tells them.
"What makes you think they're going to attack her tonight?" Buffy asks.
"Care to explain this one sis?" Faith asks with a smirk and Tru lets out an exasperated breath.
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Sorry this chapter took so long to come up and that it is so short. I have a really good excuse though. I had my birthday this last weekend and I haven't had time to breath let alone write anything.
As always, tell me how you like it, if you like it and if you think it is a waste of cyberspace. ;)