Faith leans back in the seat in front of the computer with a stupefied expression. "Th…this is ju…just g…gr…great," she stutters nervously.
Lindsay rubs her girlfriend's shoulder comfortingly. "We know who they are now, so we should be able to find them at least," she says in soothing tones.
"Wh…What…ev…ever," Faith stammers again, slamming her fist down on the desk in frustration, regretting it almost immediately. "Ow," she whimpers quietly.
Buffy giggles, regretting it almost immediately when Willow jabs her in her side. "Ow," Buffy whines, repeating Faith's previous sentiment.
"So, FBI, that's something isn't it? I mean, I don't know what we can do with that yet, but at least we know who's after her," Lindsay says.
"It isn't th…that s…sim…simple Linds," Faith sighs, rubbing her eyes. "Th…they h…ha…had," she grunts in frustration. "Tru?" She asks her sister for help, sounding almost whiny.
Tru nods in understanding. "They had used trimenthrahydramine, the same thing only the Watchers use on slayers to temporarily disable their powers," she explains.
"So, they had to know that Faith was a slayer and had to be in contact with the Council," Willow adds. "Maybe they're, like, double agents or something," she offers after a pause.
"So, I guess we're screwed, huh?" Dawn asks idly as she begins playing with Tru's paperclip necklace.
Faith leans over and takes the object away from Dawn, much to the dismay of the teen. "N…no, j…ju…just me," she sputters arduously.
"When did you start stuttering?" Buffy asks curiously.
Faith opens her mouth, but then thinks better of it and looks to her older sister with a crooked grin. "Since forever," Tru responds. "She got control over it in, like, ninth grade but she relapses whenever she's stressed," she explains to the others.
After a moment of everyone staring at her, Faith scowls. "Wh…What?" She growls as menacingly as she can.
"Nothing, it's just…" Buffy begins, trailing off and Faith quirks a brow for her to continue. "I've never heard you stutter. Not with Kakistos or Allan or in the apartment, never. I guess it's just weird," she explains, mumbling the last part.
"There's a lot about her that you don't know," Tru points out, not mindful of the glare her sister is shooting at her.
Buffy moves to say something, but Faith takes a deep breath and interrupts. "Focus please," she says slowly, making sure to annunciate each word. "Crisis here," she adds.
"So, what should we do to keep Faith alive?" Willow asks carefully.
"Probably find out where they are," Tru states anxiously.
"Duh," Buffy says obviously. "But how do we do that. They aren't exactly in the phone book," she points out.
"I was just getting to that," Tru grinds out impatiently. "These guys have to keep record of where they're at so in case they get in trouble, backup can bail them out or at least see where their mission went wrong," she explains.
"I see. So now you want us to find their next entry," Willow states in understanding.
"I'm on it," Faith says briefly, breathing deeply to get her voice under control.
"So, what happened after we found Faith when this happened?" Dawn asks out of nowhere.
"Dawn!" Buffy admonishes her sister, missing the way Faith pales.
Tru looks like a deer caught in the headlights before she takes a deep breath. "Well, one of you called the paramedics and shortly after they arrived, Lindsay got there. She called me at work and as we were talking on the phone, her body came in," she begins.
"Oh my god," Willow murmurs in shock and Faith keeps working, trying not to appear as anxious as she is.
"I left because I really…couldn't face seeing my sister like that," Tru continues. "I got home and we were talking and the knife came up and she didn't come with a knife because of security obviously so I came back here, to the morgue," she tells them.
"Then what happened?" Lindsay finds herself asking, putting her hand on Faith's arm comfortingly as she does so.
"Well, Davis told me that he found the drug in her system and the angle of the cuts didn't…they weren't consistent…they…" Tru finds herself at a loss at how to phrase it so as to spare her sister the explanation.
"They didn't match her scars?" Lindsay asks, making Tru's whole evasion process pointless.
"Scars? What scars?" Buffy asks.
Lindsay looks at the downcast expression of her girlfriend and Tru's troubled expression. "Oops," she says sheepishly.
"What is going on?" Buffy all but demands as she sees the looks at the other women's faces.
Faith begins in a deliberately slow and measured tones. "When I was younger…Growing up…" she trails off, not knowing what exactly to say before just taking a break to breathe. "I used to think too much," she states enigmatically.
"I don't understand," Willow admits, shaking her head and voicing the same thoughts of her friends.
"I always, kind of, would…get lost in my own head and I would get depressed a lot," Faith explains quietly. "So, when I was about 12 I st…start…started to c…cut after Mom d…died," she informs them, much to their surprise.
"It started getting worse after she had just turned 13, when you got called," Tru interrupts and Faith nods.
"Their dad was no help, but then, Faith ran away," Lindsay adds.
"I didn't st…stop until Wes came and I got out of pr…pris…prison," Faith stammers, scowling with every break.
"Why did you wait until then to stop?" Dawn asks curiously, her one-time experience with cutting in mind. She ignored Willow and Buffy's glares.
"Up until then I f…fig…figured my life to be o…over. But then th…they needed me in L.A a…and I re…real…ized that m…maybe s…some…one so…somewhere may n…n…need me," she works out.
"We needed you. I needed you," Buffy stresses the last part.
"Well, you sure have one hell of a way of showing it!" Faith shouts in one clear sentence. "Always casting me as…aside like some lowly peon, a useless un…undesirable, not worthy of yo…your company. I was j…just second-string sl…slayer girl to you," she growls out, surprising them all with her broken ferocity.
Buffy looks at the other girl, her mouth agape and not knowing exactly what to say. Willow speaks first. "It's not exactly like you were very forthcoming. Always hiding things from us, never telling us about your past or anything," she argues back.
"You ne…never asked and probably woul…wouldn't have even c…cared anyways. I wa…wasn't going to even wa…waste my breath," Faith cites. "And as for not be…being forth…forth…coming, I was no…nothing but nice to you g…guys when I got to Sunny-D," she adds.
"Hey, everyone, just retract your claws and stay focused here," Lindsay orders. "Did you find a log or something yet Faith?" She asks her girlfriend gently.
After taking a moment to give Lindsay an apologetic smile, Faith nods. "Yeah, it's right here," she says after getting her breathing under control.
"Their last entry was twenty minutes ago," Tru states as she reads over her little sister's shoulder.
"Well good. Maybe we can find out where they are and be back in L.A. by dawn…no pun intended," Buffy states in reply, earning a slight glare from her sister.
"It says that they were found out by the target and her blonde counterpart and have traveled to a different hotel. They are staying at the Maple Falls Inn, Room 950," Tru reads off of the screen.
"Okay then, let's go get them," Buffy states with enthusiasm.
"Hey, wait. We need a plan," Faith interjects.
"I thought you didn't 'do' plans," Dawn points out with curiosity.
"Well, we can't just go in there, all g…guns 'a blazin', beat the sh…shit out of them, threaten the…their pets and ex…expect it to all be right in the w…world again," Faith snarks back mockingly.
"So what do you expect us to do then?" Buffy asks in frustration and irritation.
Faith sits back in her seat and lets out a long suffering sigh. "They're Feds, so we have to strike some kind of deal with them," she says coherently.
"Like what?" Willow asks.
"I go back to prison and they leave everyone else alone," Faith states.
"What? Are you kidding?" Lindsay and Buffy nearly shout.
"Did I stutter?" Faith grinds out sardonically. "There's no oth…other way. If we don't offer them that, th…then they will keep hunting me down l…like a dog until I die. Not to men…mention that none of you will g…get a moment's peace with them h…hounding you," she argues.
"Please, can we just get to their hotel and we can wing it from there?" Tru asks diplomatically.
"Yeah, whatever," Faith mumbles, her mind set on what she has to do.
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A/N: This took me ten shades of forever, I know. I also know that whoever is reading this is pissed that his chapter is so damned short. I guess I just needed a transition chapter from ch.11 and, hopefully, a soon to be ch.13.