Title: To Live in Hearts

Author: Rev. Alixtii O'Krul V, TRL of the Church of St. Jesu the Heretic, Discordian

Rating: R for slashy indulgences.

Spoilers: All of Buffy and Angel.

Timeline: Futurefic. Eleven years after "Chosen."

Characters: Faith, Dawn, Giles, Kennedy.

Pairings: F/K, with overtones of W/K and possibly F/X.

Summary: "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." – Clyde Campbell.

Feedback: Yes, please. Medium of exchange, y'know?

Distribution: Just tell me about it.

Disclaimer: There was once a man named Joss Whedon...

Warnings: Angst, slash, character death.

Bath, England—May 2014

Ding-dong. The doorbell's massive ring echoed all around her.

The door opened, slowly. Behind it, a prim-looking Englishwoman stared out. "Yes?"

"Name's Faith. Here to see the doctor."

The woman—maid? housekeeper? butler (could women even be butlers)? Faith had no idea what British (or even American, for that matter) people called their different servants—paused, then nodded. "She and Sir Rupert are expecting you."

She was led through the mansion's expansive hall and up it's impressive staircase, then through labyrinthine passageways to a small room on the building's third floor. The book, unsurprisingly, was lined with books and in the corner at a wooden desk Dawn Summers, Ph.D. was hunched over a book even Faith could recognize as the Tradescan Codex—it had caused too much grief in too many of their lives for Faith not to be able to identify it on sight. The fact that Dawn was reading it now didn't bode well.

"Faith," Dawn said, looking up."It's always good to see you. Although I'm sure you can appreciate that this is a hectic time of year for us."

"Yeah, it's apocalypse season. I dig that." Fortunately, the signs and portents pointed towards Cleveland escaping without an apocalypse this time around. Which had made Faith all the more certain that something terrible was going to happen, but Fr. Marcus had managed to convince her to make the trip anyway. There were two Slayers at the school this year, plus one of the girls was turning out to be a pretty bad-ass Wiccan, so they could probably handle themselves if the portents proved to be wrong and something did happen. No use worrying about it, anyway; it's not as if there was anything Faith could do from England.

"So have you seen my sister lately?"

"B? Yeah, she and I took out a hav'rok nest in NYC just last month. She seems to be doing well. A little prematurely grey, maybe, but when you've seen the world about to end more times than you can count on your fingers and toes? It'll do that to you."

Truth was, Faith had forgotten how young Buffy was. It was a shock seeing Dawn in front of her, looking so young at the age of twenty-six (well, twenty six years worth of human memories, anyway), and knowing that Buffy was only six years older. Those years had certainly taken their toll on the older Summers sister, and Faith wondered if her own only barely younger face showed the evidence of the same toll, or if she had managed to escape it as Dawn had. After all, Buffy had been the One—a responsibility Faith had never had to shoulder, thankfully.

"And Madeleine?"

"She's growing up fast. She pulled herself up on to my lap and began to read me The Cat in the Hat. She's smart, like her father." Suddenly, a terrible thought occurred to Faith. "Shit. She's not in that book, is she?"

"We're all in it, Faith," Dawn answered, somberly. "You, me, Buffy, the Immortal, Kennedy, even Andrew. That's why it's such a thorn in our sides."

"B's gonna be pissed when she finds out."

Dawn nodded. "I'm not exactly thrilled that my six-year old niece already has an entire destiny mapped out for her in a centuries old text, either. Unfortunately, the ancients never stopped to ask our opinions."

"Damned impolite of them, if you ask me," Faith said, then paused and looked at the codex. The page Dawn was open to wasn't even two-thirds of the way through the book. "It never stops, does it?"

Dawn said nothing, simply took off her reading glasses and set them down next to the codex. "Kennedy's already in the Green Bedroom, so you'll be in the Victorian Suite."

"Just give me a bed and a roof over my head, and I'm happy," said Faith, throwing her bag over her shoulder and following Dawn through the mansion's hallways. "Anyone else coming?"

"Shelia and Ira are arriving Tuesday night. Buffy's busy with an apocalypse in Salzburg, and. . . ." Dawn shrugged. "There's really no one else, even among the Slayers. They might have been there—"

"But they didn't really lose anything. I get it."

Dawn stopped suddenly, gestured to a door. "Here's your room. Dinner's at 6. If you need anything, come find Giles or me."

"If I don't get loss first," Faith said, entered the Victorian Suite, and began to unpack.

Dinner was a formal sort of thing, at a table long enough to seat the entirety of one of Faith's P.E. classes back at St. Clare's. Giles sat at the head, and when Faith finally found her way to the large ornate dining room, he was already flanked on either side by Dawn and Kennedy. Faith popped herself down next to Dawn just as the servants were about to serve the salad.

Kennedy nodded welcome to Faith, then began to pick at her salad. The girl had lost weight, but Faith couldn't blame her. If she had lost what Kennedy had lost, she didn't think she'd have much of an appetite around this time of year, either.

Not that Faith didn't miss them with every ounce of herself, as well.

Dinner was salmon in some type of butter-lemon sauce. Faith couldn't think of the last time she had salmon—had she ever had salmon? Not before Sunnydale, certainly. Maybe once or twice since the town—

Faith didn't complete the thought.

That anniversary was just around the corner, too. Along with the anniversary of Faith's first coma, and—the list went on. May as a month officially sucked. And by officially, she meant officially. Dawn had even inserted a line to that effect into the new edition of the Slayer's Handbook.

Faith was more of a cheeseburger and fries girl herself, although she had to admit the salmon was good. She supposed Dawn and Giles ate like this all the time now, that having the servants serve salad and then fish (or whatever) had become second nature to them. She had to smile at how things had changed. The Dawn she remembered had been a cheeseburger and fries girl, too.

Change was sometimes good. Madeleine, forty-five pounds of rambunctious Slayer spawn, was proof of that.

Change was bad sometimes, too—too much of the time. After all, wasn't that why Faith and Kennedy were there? Because change had robbed them of something? Something more valuable than words?

But it was May. And in Faith's experience, May was a month for change. Losing something, gaining something, and wondering if what was gained was worth what was lost. It hardly ever was, but that was the way the world went 'round.