Chapter Six – Don't Look Back

June 2004

The waitress was right, about everything. It had cleared the next day, so Faith decided to stay. The weather actually turned out pretty nice for the next week. And she stayed on longer. Only her money was running out. So using a fake name and ID, she actually got a job. A freaking job. The only job she had ever had was slaying. Waiting tables couldn't be all that hard.

The first week, she must have broken more dishes than take home pay. But the owner was a patient woman. She just let it slide. After that, Faith figured out how to handle things. Darcy was the waitress's name that had served her that first day. And it was also the name of the owner. Darcy had bought the place from the former owners ten years before.

Darcy found Faith two weeks after she hired her sitting down in the kitchen on break. Faith had nightmares the night before and wasn't sleeping very well. It felt good to just sit and make her mind go blank.

"Hey, you feelin' OK?" Darcy asked her.

"Yeah. Peachy. Feet are hurting a little. I'll be fine in a jiffy."

"Take your time. It's slow right now. You sleepin' well?"

"New place and all. It's taking some time to get adjusted."

Yeah, adjusted to sleeping in the car, but she wouldn't tell Darcy that.

"Hey, if your place isn't working out, I have a room available over this place. It's dirt cheap. My tenant just bolted, leaving me in a lurch. What'll you say?"

She wanted to tell Darcy that she didn't have to help her out. She knew what the older woman was doing for her. Faith didn't know how much more kindness she could take. But she needed a place to crash. Her back couldn't take the car much longer.

"It's not much, but it'll keep you warm."

Which was exactly what Faith needed right then. She needed to feel warm again. Her blood had been frozen for way too long.

November 2003 – Somewhere in the Midwest along Interstate 80

Faith tapped a pencil against the console in front of her. Wesley had expressly remembered telling her that tapping was out of the question before embarking on the trip. Since getting up that morning, he hadn't said more than two polite words back to her. Faith had taken that route too.

Thank goodness they were on their way again. The interstate was sufficiently cleared of snow for them to travel safely. But another storm was predicted for that evening. Being cooped up with Faith was playing havoc on his nerves. Maybe he could spring for those plane tickets after all.

"Faith, pencil," he growled her way.

She immediately blanched, throwing it down to the floorboard. At least now it was relatively quiet, except for the music playing low on the radio. Wesley really didn't care what she tuned it to, he just needed the distraction. Luckily, she had picked something benign. He sighed as he watched a road sign go by. They were still so many days from Los Angeles.

Faith finally broke the silence of the morning with an insult. "You are such a fucking idiot, you know that?"

Great, now what did he do? If he responded to her taunt, she would no doubt drag him into some discussion about him not being good enough for the task at hand. Or she would just keep insulting him with whatever words she could dream up. He should just keep his mouth shut and drive. Instead, he snorted back, grinding his teeth together.

"OK, tell me this. What fucking moron would look at you and say, 'I just want to be friends'?" Faith said, using an annoyingly high voice for the quote.

"I'm not following."

Apparently she had just segued into what was on her mind, without telling him where she was going with it. Or he hadn't downed enough coffee earlier that morning to comprehend what she was saying.

"When women say that they just want to be friends, they don't want to be friends. You know how many times a guy has said that to me and actually meant it. Zero."

"Are we discussing what I said last night?"

They must be discussing his confession from the night before. He had told her about his dreadful attempts at expressing his feelings to Fred. None of the attempts had worked out in the end. And now she was dating Knox, the jerk.

"And pining for her? What's that all about? Just get over it."

How did he get over his infatuation with Fred? She was perfect in his eyes. A woman that he could definitely spend the rest of his life with. So totally the opposite of the woman sitting next to him in the car, traveling at seventy miles per hour down a snowy road in the middle of America. While Fred was the light, Faith was definitely the dark. While he could discuss scientific discoveries with Fred, he could discuss weapons with Faith. And why was he comparing them in his mind anyway?

"Seems I made a mistake," he finally announced.

"What? In chasing some girl's skirt?"

Faith certainly didn't understand what it was like to care for someone like Fred. He didn't even know why he tried.

"No. In telling you anything," he yelled back, putting obvious hurt into his voice.

He could hear an audible gasp escape Faith's mouth before she turned her head sideways to look out the passenger window. He knew that she was just trying to help in her own way. He just didn't like his judgment questioned by her.

"Sorry," she told him.

"I don't want to yell at you. I'm just not in the most gracious mood right now."

"I'll shut up then."

"So will I."

Pulling off the interstate at lunch, Wesley found a fast food eatery and ordered burgers for the two. He didn't even park to eat since he didn't want to sit in a silent car with the now sulking slayer. She hadn't even turned her head his way as he ordered. Handing her a bag, he quickly drove back to the entrance of the interstate.

"Wait," Faith said, grabbing his arm. "Pull over."

"Listen, if this was about what I said," he started to tell her.

"No, no. Over there. Back in that alley. Turn around. I saw something."

Wesley immediately complied, because Faith's eyes were much sharper than his were. He drove down the alley behind the food places. Faith looked all around for something.

"What did you see?"

"Two guys. Something suspicious. I'm not sure. Stop," she said, putting her bag of food down.

She opened the car door and stepped out without him backing her up.

"Wait, Faith," he said as he completely stopped the vehicle.

Faith turned all around the alley, trying to find what she had seen. He distinctly remembered later on that looking around, not up or down wasn't the best plan in the world. So many creatures came from below or up above. At least they weren't vampires since the sun was still out.

Whoever or whatever the creatures were came flying from up above, one crashing into Faith, the other into the car. It put a big dent in the hood. He watched as Faith went down hard to the ground. Pulling out his weapon, Wesley fired at least four bullets into the thing. It lay momentarily stunned on his hood, and then advanced on him with super speed. As Faith flung off her adversary, he went down to the snowy ground, losing the weapon. The snow did provide a softer cushion from the brutal, uneven pavement. Only there was something underneath the snow, which he couldn't see and it rammed into his back with great force. He screamed out in pain as the creature tried to clamp down on his shoulder with its now bared teeth.

The creatures had taken human form in public, but now that they had been confronted, they morphed back into creatures with very sharp teeth and spines down the middle of their heads. Wesley held the demon back as best he could, trying to push it off of him so he could reach his knife in his boot. But the thing was strong. He wasn't making any headway whatsoever. He could hear Faith on the other side of the car pounding on the other one. Hopefully she would have much better luck. And she might lend him a hand if nothing changed about his situation.

He finally found a little leverage with his legs, since they were much longer than the demon's were and he was able to knee it and push it off of him just long enough to retrieve his knife. It scrambled up to take him on again, but met the end of his knife as it jumped on his prone body still laying the ground. It moaned in pain, but still wouldn't give up. Wesley's hands were coated with bluish-green goo that must be the demon's blood. It covered his front now, so the shots must have hurt the thing some. So he grappled with it, one hand on the knife hilt, trying to keep it from digging into his stomach and one pushing its face away so it wouldn't chomp down on him.

Faith finally dispatched her foe, slicing its head off. The head came rolling into view in front of the car as her foot connected with the wounded demon on top of him. His knife came out with a sickly sound as the demon flew through the air, landing a few yards away with a thud. She quickly decapitated that one too, giving Wesley time to catch his breath.

She appeared a few moments later, leaning over him.

"What the hell were those things?"

"No idea," he said, still lying on the ground.

"Strong fuckers, that's for sure. You gonna lie there all day and rest?"

"My back seems to be giving me fits."

Wesley rolled over onto his knees and just stayed there for a little while.

"Getting old on me?"

"Yes. Apparently I am."

And he still couldn't get up. He wanted to ask for her help, but concluded that it might not be such a great idea. He felt a light touch on his lower back as he tried to stand for the second time.

"Let me look before you get up."

Faith pulled his shirt out of his pants. Her fingers grazed his now naked back, looking for injuries he knew he didn't have. The creature just made his muscles clench up. It would take some strong painkillers and a hot bath to make them right again. Then she pressed down with such a force that he thought she was going to kill him. He ground out a low, guttural cry from the force of her touch. But then something miraculous happened. He could actually move now.

"Sorry. Didn't want to warn ya. You'd tense up even more. Can you move now?"

Wesley gingerly arose from the ground, taking her arm to steady himself. He was stooped over, but at least he could move.

"Who taught you that?"

"Learned it here and there."

"That bloody well hurt."

"Not as much as kneeling on the ground for the rest of the day. Get into the car while I throw away the trash."

One good thing about getting injured – you weren't on clean-up duty. He watched from the car as Faith quickly deposited the demon corpses into a dumpster. He just hoped that no one saw or heard what just happened. And if they did, they hadn't called the police. Running back to the car, she climbed into the driver's side and grinned as she put her seatbelt on.

"Damn, that was fun."

"Yes. Let's do it again sometime," he drawled out. "Next time I'll sit in the car while you have all the fun."

"Oh, admit it. You like the danger," she said as she pulled out of the alley to head to the interstate.

"I like the part of making sure no one gets hurt. The danger I could live without."

"But then it wouldn't be any fun."

"I feel like I'm on a merry-go-round right now talking with you."

"Hey, those can be dangerous too. You spin, you puke."

He had felt like vomiting when his back spasmed on that ground. But Faith was there to pick him up and help him. When they weren't fighting with each other, they made a good team.

He watched her as she drove. The fight had put her in a better mood. She bobbed her head to the beat on the radio, even grinning a little from time to time. He was glad that her mood had improved, since his hadn't. He still didn't know what to think about her proclamation. Should he just get over it, like Faith so announced? Fred wasn't exactly the kind of girl that one just got over. But he had blown it with her. Moving on would seem like the best course of action. As was apologizing for his outburst with Faith before lunch.

"I wasn't pining over her, you know," he spoke up as he turned the radio down so she would actually listen to him for once.

"Could a fooled me."

He sighed, exasperated with Faith once again. Why couldn't she understand the fact that love just wasn't that simple? And did he really love Fred or the concept of Fred?

"You think that I'm fooling myself then?"

Faith snorted at his comment. "Like I know what's right or not. Not the expert here. Relationships and me just don't mix. I do know that it's not worth it wasting your time on a person if they don't even see you. You know, for what you are and all."

Faith the master psychologist, he thought. Maybe her time in prison did afford her much time to think about such things. He had been so busy in the last couple of years, sometimes he couldn't think straight, much less know what his heart was saying to him.

"What am I, Faith?"

No answer. Just silence. He looked over to see that Faith's forehead had wrinkled, like she was thinking very hard about her next statement.

"Not the easiest question. I'm not sure at all what I am these days. There has been too much going on in the last couple of months. I just don't know."

His self-doubt was very evident right then. It was always there, in the back of his mind that he would never had the self-confidence that Angel possessed. He thought he had gained some confidence in the last year, but it all seemed for naught in the last couple of months. Like he had been catapulted back to before they went to Pylea. Now, he didn't know his place again. And Cordelia wasn't there to kick him in the rear like she did when he got down on himself.

"I just wanted to formulate my plan, watcher. OK, here goes. One, you're smart."

"Yippee."

"Hey, no sarcasm until I'm done. Got it?"

Faith zoomed around a slow van in the right lane. She really did have a lead foot, but he didn't want to complain since she was about to enlighten him with her knowledge. And he had to control himself not to roll his eyes every time.

"Yes, dear."

"Two, you can handle yourself in a fight, unlike your Princess Margaret days."

"I think there was a compliment in there somewhere."

"Shut it."

Wesley gave her a salute and quickly did as she asked.

"You've actually learned how to dress is three. Four is you got rid of those glasses, cause I never could tell what was going on in those eyes of yours with them on."

Wesley started tapping with the pencil he had watched Faith toss to the ground not too long before. Her food lay untouched by his feet on the floorboard. Maybe he should tell her that neither of them had eaten. But she told him not to speak until she was done talking.

"Five, you're not that skinny runt you were in Sunnydale. Six, you can read all those languages and things that I could never do."

"You're repeating yourself," he pointed out, which earned him a glare.

"Seven," she ground out, "you're really fucking annoying, but in a good, sarcastic way. Eight, and let me tell you these are by no means in any particular order, but your personality has done a 180, which in my book is a total plus."

"Now that did not make any sense whatsoever."

Faith pulled off the next exit quickly, sliding to the side of the road because of all the snow built up from plowing.

"Didn't I tell you to let me finish?"

"Indeed you did. I just don't see where this is headed. Besides, neither one of us has eaten."

"Give me my food then," she growled to him.

She reached over as he bent down to retrieve her bag and they smacked heads sharply. Now on top of everything else, his head ached. He wondered if he should get out and open up the back to get his aspirin out of his suitcase.

"Nine, your head is so fucking hard. Do you know that?" she told him as she held her forehead.

"Let me see," he finally said.

Wesley pushed her hand away to see a big red spot in the middle of her forehead. He touched it with his thumb, getting a slight wince out of her.

"You just fought a demon that took decapitation to take it down, and a little bump makes you wince?"

"As I said, you have a really hard head," she said as she opened her eyes to look into his.

He hadn't realized how close he had moved over to look at her supposed injury. She placed her small hand on the side of his face he knew just to make sure he didn't pull back. Her touch was warm and made his skin tingle. Interlacing his hand with hers, he tried to remove it, but instead she held tight. He tilted his chin up and placed a small kiss on her now almost back-to-normal red spot.

"Better?" he managed to get out.

"Ten. When did you get so damn hot?"

That should have been the danger signal from her, but he seemed to be mesmerized by her brown eyes at that moment, and didn't move fast enough before her lips captured his. Not that he didn't like her affections. He just didn't know if he could stop this time with just a kiss.

Faith opened her mouth, sweeping her tongue out to make him do the same. He heard off in the distance the sounds of the freeway, the sounds of a horn blaring. But this time, he wouldn't let anything distract him from tasting her thoroughly.

Burying his hands in her thick hair, he deepened the kiss until he heard her moan. He hadn't realized how responsive she would be to his ministrations. Wishing that they drove a larger car and it wasn't the middle of the day, he slowed his progress, trying to pull back to tell Faith that they should stop what they were doing. It wouldn't be good to be caught necking at the side of the road by a police officer.

When he finally did catch his breath, Faith giggled a little when he opened his eyes.

"Eleven. I love your eyes," she practically purred at him, giving him one of her trademark cat-like smiles.

As she started to dive in for another go, her eyes widened in surprise. And it wasn't anything that he was doing to surprise her.

"Shit. Get down, Wes," Faith yelled as his window shattered.

A large claw raked down his seat as Faith pulled him down out of danger.

TBC

Next: Cliffhanger. I know, complain, complain. Grumble, grumble. You reviewers don't like cliffhangers. I love them. Just think of this as a commercial break. I hate commercials though. What the heck was that coming through the window? Another fight? Does Faith have some kind of demon radar attached to her or something? She sure does run into trouble a lot. More happenings with the future also.

Author notes: I have not one, but two endings worked out for this. When I get there, I may need some help. When I do, I'll quiz everyone to see what he or she likes. Or maybe not. We'll see. But I really do know exactly how it should end. Until then, keep guessing about what is going on. Please remember, I'm still working from canon. So everything that happened in season five, will happen. Just a reminder.

Many, many thanks go out to all of you that have been reading this crazy, wacky thing. This was my practice my romance/mystery fic this time. I hope that's what I'm doing. So keep reading and reviewing. I'm having so much fun with this one. Thanks go out to: 12345 (yay, new reviewer, I hope I don't scare anyone off, because I love new reviewers), Steph, shahid, Mandie, qkith, Illyria639, AllenPitt (another new one), pari106, and all the others who are reading. Thank you.

Answers to questions:

Steph—Woohoo. Thanks for following. Faith, snow? Lots of thoughts running through my head. Yeah, and I was thinking about posting it there also. I'll give a heads up when I do. Hey, it's not NC-17 yet. It could be though.

Illyria639—you are so funny. And I'm not telling.