Author: Episkopos Reverend Alixtii O'Krull V, TRL of the Church of St. Jesu the Heretic, Discordian
Timeline: Somewhere around "The Girl in Question." Spoilers for "Chosen."
Rating: PG
Summary: Dawn Summers is an American attending an Italian high school in Rome. Beatrice DeCosta is her Italian classmate. Their rôles as Watcher and Slayer will send them into a world of high intrigue as the Council tries to assert its control over the guardianship of the Cleveland Hellmouth.
A/N: About Dawn's salary: after the exchange rate, it's about $130,000, which I don't think is completely unreasonable considering she pretty much has Quentin Travers' old job. Giles would probably have made something like £45,000 a year (since he had an active Slayer as his charge), and your average Watcher would have made maybe £30,000. Also remember these salaries are pound denominated--i.e. keyed to the cost of living in Britain rather than America. So if Dawn were living in London, her £70,000 salary would buy her what a $70,000 salary would buy her in the States (still a decent salary in any case!). A double cheesburger in the States is $.99; in London, it's £.99. Only she's living in Italy, which is on the euro, so her salary has a bit more oomph--roughly about €100,000.
Disclaimer: All original Buffy and Angel characters belong to Mutant Enemy, not me.
Dawn finds Faith in the gym, practicing with Beatrice and Kimberly. Dawn just watches (that's her job, right?) as the three train. Faith glances over at the Watcher, then back at the two junior Slayers. "You see what I see?"
Dawn nods. "They're holding their arms too close to their body."
Beatrice looks at her Watcher with surprise. "But this is how you hold your arms when you fight, Dawn. A strong defense."
"And she damned better hold her arms that way if she doesn't want to be covered in bruises,"Faith says."It's good technique: guard your face with the one hand, block any blows to the chest with the other. There's just one thing: she's not a Slayer. You two are. You can move faster, have quicker reflexes. You should be able to block a blow no matter where your hands are when it starts coming."
She looks at Dawn. "You able to join in?"
"Just give me a moment." Dawn empties her hands, then removes her jewellery. "I'm not exactly dressed to train."
"Don't give me that. How many times has your sister gone slaying in a miniskirt?"
"And since when was Buffy the examplar for good ideas?"
Faith considers. "Touché. Now just stand in front of me and hit me. Punch, chop, whatever. Don't give me any warning; just do it as fast as you can."
She stands with her hands behind her back, parade rest. Dawn goes for the abdomen with her right fist, followed by a left chop to the temple. Moving her left hand only once Dawn begun to move, Faith quickly deflects both attacks. "See?" she asks Beatrice and Kimberly. "Now you try."
Beatrice is able to block most of Dawn's attacks, but a few got through; Kimberly, on the other hand, manages to block almost all of them. Faith and Fr. Marcus really have the junior Slayer trained well, and it occurs to Dawn that she could use picking up a few tricks from their book. Dawn would never have thought of this particular exercise, for example. And how weird is that—going to Faith for advice on being a Watcher?
After a while, Faith nods. "Okay, girls. You can hit the showers." The two girls let out a sigh of relief and quickly make their way out of gymnasium, leaving Faith and Dawn alone.
"They're good girls," Faith says. "They'll go far if they get the chance." If they don't die an early death, Faith means, but Dawn is grateful that she doesn't say it.
"You work well with them," Dawn says. "They look up to you." It's only a piece of the truth, that Faith is a damned good Slayer, but she knows it's as much as Faith will let her say without raising some serious psychological defences.
"Yeah," agrees Faith, looking absently at the door leading to the showers. "Who'd have thought I'd end up as a rôle model?" She's doubting herself, Dawn realizes. Then again, ever since her coma Faith has been the mistress of doubt.
"You always were a rôle model," says Dawn. "I practically idolized you as a child. There's a natural "but" at the end of that sentence, so as far as reassurance goes it's not all that helpful but Dawn knows that Faith needs to hear the bad along with the good. That's the only way the Slayer will trust what Dawn has to say, and accept the good as being true along with the bad.
"And then I go and try and kill your sister," Faith points out. "Sorry about that. But what if something like that happens here? What if I end up failing Kim the way I did you?"
And there it is: the fear of failure she would never have admitted if Dawn hadn't told it like it was. Only the thing is, the fact that she has the fear means that this time, she won't fail. "It won't happen," Dawn assures her. "You've lived and you've learned. This time around you realize the stakes. I've seen the way you work with Kim, and I'll tell you this: if there's any one thing that convinces me you're reformed, that's it. You might doubt yourself, but you'll keep on going for her sake. Which is exactly what I'll put in my report." Dawn picks up her clipboard and makes an exaggerated show of writing down notes.
Faith nods. "Yeah. She keeps me sane sometimes. If you had asked me, I never would have been able to see myself ending up here. I mean, I was never one for religion, and here I am working for a Catholic priest. But the thing is, I couldn't think of a place I'd rather be."
Dawn nods. She doesn't think anyone expected what happened to happen. (Willow in Brazil? Xander in Africa?) She certainly didn't. High Watcher? £70,000 a year? Not a chance.
She only hopes some day she'll be as happy with it as Faith seems to be with her fate.