Chapter 2 - In which our heroines start looking for jobs and Faith is visited by the COW.

As Willow let Xander and Anya in she asked, hopefully, "Would either of you like a drink, before we get started?" Willow wasn't looking forward to telling them the change in plans and was willing to take any excuse to put it off.

"No, we're both good." Xander answered with a slight shake of his head. Obviously wanting to get to the reason for the meeting as soon as possible.

Willow led them into the living room where Tara greeted them both. Xander and Anya sat down on a couple of chairs, while Willow and Tara sat down opposite them. For a while no one spoke. Xander and Anya gazed at Willow and Tara expectantly, while Willow and Tara tried to figure out who should go first.

Finally Willow said, "We asked you here so we could talk about the resurrection."

"Ah." Xander said, is if finally understanding something, "I wondered why Giles wasn't here. So when are going to do it?"

"We're not." Tara said.

"But we've been planning this for a month now." Anya protested, "We've got everything ready."

"We spoke to Buffy..." Willow started.

"Will, she's dead." Xander interrupted. He looked a little incredulous, as if he thought that the stress was getting to Willow.

"We held a seance." Tara explained, "So that we could talk to her."

"Yeah." Willow nodded. "We thought that we should ask her before dragging her out of heaven."

"I still think you should have..." Xander stopped as he processed what Willow had just said. "Did you say heaven?"

Willow nodded, "There, or somewhere a lot like it. Anyway the point is she's happy."

"What bout the rest of us? Maybe you haven't noticed but patrol isn't going so well. The Buffy-bot Certainly isn't working as well as we hoped."

"I know" Willow said, getting annoyed. She was aware of the problems they'd been having. "I am the one who has to fix her... It every night."

"I know Will, I know." Xander said in a placating tone, "It's just... we need help."

Willow nodded, "Yeah we do. We have an idea about that." Willow turned to Tara for support. Tara took Willow's hand and gave it a slight squeeze. Turning back to the others Willow said, "We're going to..." Willow swallowed, then gathering her courage she said, "We're going to get Faith out of prison."

For a while no one responded.

"Are you both nuts?" Anya asked.

"That's what I was going to ask." Xander added. "After everything Faith's done?"

"Again, we know. But we think that Faith has changed."

Rising Xander asked, "What does Buffy think about this?"

"It was her idea." Tara answered in a quiet voice.

Xander sat down again as he tried to process this new information. Xander laughed, starting to sound a little hysterical. "Well of course she did. She won't be around when Faith goes berserk."

Not sure how she was going to convince Xander, but determined to try, Willow said, "You said yourself that we need help. We need a slayer."

"But not Faith."

"Then who?"

"How about Buffy?"

"No!" Tara said, "Xander, I know that you miss Buffy. We all do, but she's happy now and we can't take that away from her. What sort of friends would that make us."

"Well I guess that you've already made up your mind about this."

"Xander, we want you to be okay with this, but you're right we have made up our minds. I'd say that if Buffy thinks that we can trust Faith then I - guess that we can." Willow tried to make herself sound a lot more certain than she actually felt. What if Xander was right? Would she be able to live with herself if Faith hurt anyone?

Putting these worries aside Willow decided to press ahead to the next issue, hoping that it would be less controversial. "Now there's something else we need to discuss."

"And the fun just keeps on leaving." Even Xander realised that he was sounding childish as he said this.

Willow glowered at Xander who raised his hands in Submission. Seeing that she had everyone's attention Willow said, "It's about the Buffy-bot. keeping her... it running is taking a lot of time and money. I think that as soon as Faith arrives we should stop using it."

"What about Dawn?"

As a thought occurred to her, Tara surprised everyone by standing up. Seeing everyone turn towards her she said, "Excuse me a moment."

Leaving the room Tara went upstairs and knocked on the door to Dawn's room.

"Come in." Dawn called. Tara opened the door to find Dawn lying stretched out across her bed, a text book propped open in front of her. Looking up Dawn said, "I've almost finished my homework."

Tara nodded, "Can you come downstairs? We need to talk to you"

Dawn put her textbook away and followed Tara downstairs. Tara went to sit next to Willow while Dawn stood between the two groups, wondering if she was in trouble. The way everyone seemed to be annoyed about something gave the meeting a very interventiony feel. Dawn told herself she hadn't done anything wrong, aside from the stealing. Starting to grow nervous Dawn tried to tell herself that this wasn't about that.

Finally Willow turned to Dawn and said, "Dawn, We're going to try to get Faith released from prison so that she can help us with patrolling."

"Faith?" Dawn wasn't sure whether she should feel relieved or more nervous. She could still clearly remember what had happened about a year and a half ago.

Dawn and Joyce had both been in the kitchen doing the washing up when it had happened. Dawn put the last plate away saying, "There, that's the drying done."

Joyce held up a glass and said, "You missed this."

Dawn shrugged sheepishly as she walked over to take it. She had just dried it when there was a knocking at the door. Putting the glass down Dawn said, "I'll get it." Dawn went to the front door and opened it, She was surprised to see Faith there. "Faith, when did you..."

"Sorry but I don't have time for you at the moment." Faith said as she backhanded Dawn across the face. Dawn was knocked back into the wall, her head thudding against it.

As she passed out the last thing Dawn heard was her mother saying,"Dawn, who is it?"

Seeing the look of worry on Dawn's face Tara said, "Dawn whatever happens we won't let Faith hurt you."

"Okay then." Dawn was still worried but she knew that Willow and Tara would protect her. She told herself that they wouldn't be considering this if they thought that Faith would hurt anyone.

"There's something else." Willow went on, "We're going to deactivate the Buffy-bot."

Dawn's first thought was that this would be like losing her sister again. This surprised her as she hadn't realised till then how much she had come to look on the Buffy-bot as being a replacement for her sister. Then she began to wonder what would happen to her once everyone knew that Buffy was dead. "What about me, will I have to go live with my dad?"

"Well no one knows where he is." Dawn paled at this. As much as she disliked the idea of going to live with her father, she really didn't want to have to live with foster parents. She didn't know why she couldn't just stay there with Willow and Tara. "We're going to look into becoming your legal guardians."

"That is, if you want us to?" Tara added. She had seen Dawn pale, and it suddenly occurred to her that Dawn might not want to stay with them. After all she'd be a lot safer with her father, or with anyone who was away from Sunnydale.

"Of course I do." Dawn's face lit up with excitement as she said his, "Is it possible?"

"We're not certain yet, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure that you don't have to leave your home." After this they spent the rest of the evening discussing their plans. Both for getting Faith out of prison and for getting guardianship of Dawn.

With a heavy sigh Willow opened up the box and pulled out a bundle of bills. She then began to sort them into three piles. Noticing Tara come in she said, "Hi. I was just prioritising the bills."

Tara pointed at the third pile , that all seemed to be on the same threatening shade of red paper, and said, "I take it this is the 'urgent' pile."

"Uh, no." Wilow pointed at the second pile and said, "This is the 'urgent' pile." She then pointed at the third pile and said "This is the 'pay us now or we send the boys round' pile." She gave Tara a weak smile then went back to work. Noticing the bank statement Tara picked it up and read the balance. She glanced up at willow a moment then turned back to double check it. "We seem to be a - a little overdrawn."

Willow looked up, blushing, "Oh, yes. Well , um..."

"What happened to the money from Mrs Summers insurance."

"A lot of the went on paying her hospital bills and for the funeral. The rest didn't last very long."

"And here I was about to suggest we start a college fund for Dawn." Tara sighed, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well I didn't want to worry you. I was hoping something would come up."

Tara sat down and taking Willows hand in her own she said, "You shouldn't have kept this to yourself." Wilow just nodded, finding it hard to meet Tara's eyes. "Well you know what we have to do."

"Rob a bank?"

"I was going to say get jobs."

"Oh, coz I've looked round our bank and they have terrible security. It'd be easy." Tara frowned slightly so Willow went on, "Okay well the Magic Box is getting lots of business so I think that Anya would like some more help."

Tara brightened at this. "Thats a good idea. You should ask her tomorrow."

"Me?" Willow said in shock. "Work with Anya? No way. We wouldn't last a day."

"But you're getting on a lot better with Anya."

"Maybe when I'm just seeing her occasionally but working with her all day" Willow shook her head, "Nu huh, it wouldn't work."

"Alright so I'll ask Anya. What about you?"

"I'm sure that I'll find something."

"Okay. And Willow? You don't have to hide this sort of thing from me. I want to help."

Willow smiled and said, "I know baby, I just didn't want to worry you."

"Willow, I kinda do worry. All the time in fact. And I guess that you do to so wouldn't it be better if we were worrying about these things together? I don't want to feel left out."

"Oh god Tara, I'm sorry, I just thought..."

"I know Will, and it was sweet, I don't want you thinking you have to look after me, I want us looking out for each other."

Willow and Tara arrived at the Magic Box with their arms linked, chatting about something that Miss kitty had done. They stopped as they saw that Anya was trying to indicate that she wanted to talk to them. They walked over to the side of the room and Anya said, "After we talked last night I began wondering how you were doing for money, I mean since neither of you have incomes."

"Actually we wanted to talk to you about that." Tara said, "I was wondering if I could have a job here."

"Of course you can. You're hard working and you know all about magic. Now if you wanted me to give a job to Willow that would be a different matter. She's terrible at wrapping stuff and she steals."

"Hey I'm standing right here."

"Of course you are." She patted Willow on the arm in a condescending manner.

Seeing Giles come in from the training room, Willow said, "I better go and talk to Giles." She just hoped that Giles would take the idea better than Xander had.

"Giles we've been discussing the problem that we've been having with Patrol."

"Yes Xander arrived with Anya and he mentioned something about a plan."

"What did he say?"

"He didn't say much, but I got the impression that he wasn't happy." Giles took his glasses off and began wiping them, wondering what had gotten Xander in such a tizzy. From the way Xander had acted he was starting to worry that Willow had come up with something foolhardy like resurrecting Buffy.

"We want to get Faith out of prison." Willow blurted out, hoping that Giles wouldn't explode too badly.

Giles gave a sigh of relief. He missed Buffy but he had dreaded Willow trying to bring her back and the possible repercussions. Given how powerful she had grown recently he knew that she might have thought that she was up to it. Trying to not let his relief colour his reaction too much Giles took a moment to consider her idea. "Yes, well that would be the logical thing to do."

"The problem is we don't know where to start."

"Might I suggest the Watcher's Council." Noticing Willow's expression he went on, "I can understand your hesitation but it is this sort of thing that they're good at."

"But will they want to help us?" Considering how hard the council had tried to kill Faith Willow wasn't too hopeful about how much they'd be willing to help. Actually she suspected that their reaction would make Xander's seem moderate.

"As Buffy pointed out they are rather pointless without a slayer, so yes I do think that they will be willing to help." Giles decided not to mention that the only other alternative the watchers council had was to kill Faith so that another slayer would be called.

"Okay, if you can get in touch with the council."

"I'll do it now, before it gets too late." Glancing at his watch Giles worked out that Travers would be sitting down for his tea soon. knowing how much Travers hated to be disturbed Giles hoped that he would be able to get through to him beforehand.

Faith stared at the woman who was sitting on the other side of the glass screen and tried to figure out who she was. She was wearing a finely cut black suit and had a long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Faith got the impression that she was either a lawyer or a watcher. Neither possibility was particularly good.

The woman glanced round the booth uncertainly before taking the phone off the wall and saying into it, "I am Claudia."

"Yeah, well good for you." Faith asked, still trying to work out whether this woman was working for Wolfram and Heart or the watchers council.

"I have been assigned as your new watcher."

Well that answers that question. Out loud Faith said, "Maybe you haven't noticed but I'm in prison. I don't need a watcher in here."

"That is an easy problem to deal with." Claudia said, a smug expression on her face.

Oh yeah, she's a watcher. Faith took a moment to appraise the other woman. She didn't exactly seem to be experienced or battle hardened. In fact Faith didn't think that she'd be much better than Wesley had been. Not that it mattered much. "Really, well it's nice of you to offer. Actually a lot nicer than trying to kill me but I think that I'll pass."

"Will you? Faith I understand what you're trying to do here. Making up for past mistakes and all that. But really what good are you doing in here?"

Faith started to explain how she was a murderer and how she ought to be punished for it, but under Claudia's cool gaze she couldn't get the words out.

"If you really want to make up for your past mistakes then surely the best way is to prove that you can live up to your destiny. Prove that you can be as good a slayer as Ms. Summers was."

Faith wanted to argue with this. To explain that she deserved to be there, but again she couldn't. Ever since Angel had arrived to tell her what had happened to Buffy she had been less and less sure that she was doing the right thing by staying in prison. She knew that she had a destiny to fulfil and that she wasn't doing this in prison. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing. We'll do everything."

Willow was sat in the dining room working at her laptop. Tara sat down near her and spent a few minutes watching Willow working.

Willow turned from the screen and smiling at Tara she said, "I'm just getting some information on adopting Dawn."

Tara got up and moved round behind Willow so that she could see the screen. Putting her arms round Willow she asked, "Any luck? I mean will it be possible?"

"Oh yes." Willow said happily, "Actually it should be quite simple."

"It should?" Tara had been worried that after getting Dawn's hopes up it wouldn't turn out to be possible. She had been berating herself for not waiting till they had more facts before telling Dawn. Now Willow was telling her it would be simple.

"Yes it will in a drawn out and complicated kind of way but it is possible,"

Tara grinned at her girlfriend's quirky way of putting things, "So what do we have to do?"

"Well one of us adopts Dawn as a single parent."

Tara frowned at this ,"But I thought that we were both going to adopt her."

Willow turned back to look at Tara, reaching back to take her hand, "Well that's where we get to the drawn out and complicated part. Once that has been approved the other person applies for a second parent adoption."

"So afterwards we'll both be Dawn's parents? You're right that is..."

"Needlessly complicated?"

"Exactly."

"Well, we're pretty lucky as California is one o the best states for allowing gay couples to adopt."

"That is a relief. I had been worried..." Tara stopped with a frown.

"That they might take Dawn away from us to stop us from recruiting her into our lesbian lifestyle?" Willow filled in.

"Again I say exactly. So what do we do now?"

"Now we have to talk to a lawyer."

"That sounds expensive."

Willow nodded then, turning back to her computer, she said, "I know which means I'm going to have to work harder at getting a job."