Author's notes: I'm really, really, really sorry that it's taken me so long to update, things are hectic right now, but there's less than two months of school left and then I'm free to update all I want (until a start uni, but I hear you don't really do all that much work there anyway) so I will be able to finish Little Princess and get round to update Blue Skies and Wet Paint, I promise.

Thank you to the following people for your reviews,

Marian, Aryel, spikes baybee, maliek, Koos, dogbertcarroll, TheDeadWalk, Rasputan, Darklight, tp96 and rma. And a special thanks to mfkngst for her email.

Chapter 5

When the plane landed in LA, Lexie was fast asleep. It had been a long day for her, meeting Faith, the excitement of going to LA, and being on a plane for the first time, it had all caught up with her and an hour into the flight she was curled up in the enormous, plush leather seat of Angel's jet. Faith sat watching her the entire time, her hand softly stroking over her hair, committing her daughter to memory. The way her chest rose up and down with each breath, how she had one little hand wrapped tightly around Peter, with her other thumb stuck in her mouth. It all seemed completely miraculous to Faith. When it was time to leave the plane she didn't even stir.

"It always amazes me what a heavy sleeper she s, an earthquake wouldn't even wake her." Ellie told Faith and Angel as Faith carefully, almost reverently picked her up and carried her of the plane. She left the luggage for Angel.

A car was waiting for them at the airport, courtesy of Wolfram and Hart, and it would be about ten pm when they would safely be back at the hotel. With Faith eyes firmly fixed on her child, Angel took the opportunity to watch Faith. She had a look of amazement about her that only a parent can have for their child, the same look he had had when he held Connor as a baby. Complete and unconditional devotion. This little girl had just become Faith's world; her reason for everything. All that Faith had been through in her life, all that she had done, it didn't matter now, Lexie was what mattered. Angel couldn't have been prouder of the slayer right then, he knew that she would be okay now. He may have lost his own son, be he silently vowed that he would do everything in his power to keep Faith's child safe. Even if it meant he had to be nice to her father.

"So, what's the plan then?" Ellie asked, been such an organised person, she was a little anxious to know what they were doing next. Faith being so preoccupied with her staring, left Angel to answer.

"We'll go to my hotel, everyone from Sunnydale is staying there, and I'm guessing you could all do with some sleep. Fred, our resident scientist, can take the DNA samples in the morning once everyone is rested. Then I guess the rest is up to Faith, but I'm sure it'll involve some lengthy talks with a certain annoying carpenter."

"You don't like him?" Ellie asked, curious to learn more about him.

"Xander and I have never really been friends. We just don't…click."

Faith chuckled softly at his turn of phrase, just because she wasn't taking part in the conversation, didn't mean she wasn't listening.

"You know, if the two of you hadn't been so busy fighting over B, you could have actually been friends," she told him with her usual smirk.

"What a horrible thing to say," he said, doing a fairly good impression of being offended. The truth was, he respected Xander, he was good man, and would do anything to protect the people he loved. He knew that from first hand experience. Though Angel would never admit that out loud.

"So, I hear you're a rich man now," Buffy said, a little tentatively, approaching Xander as he sat in the hotel kitchen eating a sandwich. Her only reply was him raising his eyebrows questioningly, but that could have just been because he had a mouthful of chicken salad sandwich.

Receiving no answer from Xander, she took it upon her self to continue, "Look, about earlier, I was way, way out of line. I shouldn't have said what I did about Faith; I didn't even mean it really. I know that I haven't been the Buffy that you all know and love recently… I went through so much last year, and I know that sounds like I'm making excuses, but it's true, and I'm so sorry, Xander,"

Xander looked at her for a minuet while he finished chewing, and it gave him the chance to think carefully about what he wanted to say.

"I know you are Buff, but it's not me you need to be saying all this to. I know that you didn't insult Faith to her face, but what you said was really harsh, and I kinda think that maybe you and her need to talk about everything that happened back then, and find out where you stand right now. And I know this sounds really clichéd, but Faith has changed so much since then, she deserves another chance, Buffy,"

"I know, believe me, I know. And talking to Faith is top of to do list, look," she said in a proud childlike way as she pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to him. He looked at her once again, only this time more in amused disbelief than anything before he looked at the paper. Sure enough there at the top was "Buffy's To Do List" he raised an eyebrow at her, but she signalled for him to read it all, and sure enough, right there at number one was "Fix things with Faith."

"Thanks, Buff," he told her sincerely.

"You're welcome, but I'm not doing it for you."

"I know. So what else have you got down here? Number 2, Fix myself." He read out loud and looked up at her.

She shrugged, "It has to be done, I know that." Xander nodded in agreement.

"Number 3, show Dawn the world, as promised. Number 4 BUY SHOES! I see shoes deserve all capitals?" he laughed.

"Of course, shoes are very important, especially when all the shoes I own are lying in the bottom of a great big crater," Buffy said earnestly.

Some time later, after settling a still sleeping Lexie down in her bedroom, Faith left to find Xander. She didn't have to wait long as just as she was closing the bedroom door, she saw him walking down the corridor towards him.

"Hey, I ran into Angel, he told me where you'd be,"

"Yeah, sorry I didn't come and find you sooner, but she fell asleep on the plane and I wanted to get her settled," she told him.

"How is she?" he watched as Faith gave him a perfect smile.

"Amazing."

"Can I see her?" Xander asked cautiously. Faith, now knowing what a heavy sleeper Lexie was, knew that they wouldn't wake her. She gently pushed the door open, the light from the hallway illuminating the tiny figure on the bed. They stepped a little closer, and Xander stared in amazement. The bed sheets were pulled up over her shoulders, and her thumb was stuck in her mouth, so much of her face was hidden, but he still found himself looking for any similarities between the girl and himself. All he could see, though, was her dark hair, which she could have gotten from her mother. If she had been smiling, then Xander would have known without a doubt that she was his.

Turning to look at Faith, he saw the way she looked at Lexie, with an unconditional, uncompromising love; a mother's love. He felt guilty for ever thinking that she wouldn't make a good mother, like he had when she had first sent him the letter. He thought that she was too selfish, too damage to love any one else like that. He knew now that he had been wrong.

"I guess she had a pretty tiring day, huh?" he asked softly.

"Yeah, Ellie said she was up before six this morning,"

"You look pretty tired too," he said. She raised an eyebrow in his direction, causing him to quickly rephrase, "I mean not that you look rough or anything, you look great, you always look great, I just meant that-"

"Chill out Harris, I get the picture," Faith cut him off with a soft little laugh, it was nice to see that the goofy guy she met all those years ago was still around.

"Sorry, sometimes my mouth sets off before checking with my brain," Xander admitted sheepishly. "So, did you're sister come with you?" he asked.

"Yeah, she's in the room next door. She can't wait to meet everybody," 'especially you' she added silently.

"Did Fred tell you that she got a DNA sample from me already?"

"Yeah, she took one from me and Lexie too," Faith laughed softly again, "She didn't even wake up when Fred took the swab from her mouth,"

"Heavy sleeper? I was too, I used to have three alarm clocks just to get up in time for school" he said. The two held each other's gaze for a moment. Once again, it struck Xander that he really did want to be Lexie's father. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he liked the idea of having someone that he could love no matter what, someone that would love him back and be able to rely on him. Add to that the chance that he would finally get to know the real Faith, not the mask that she wore when they first met, it was all very appealing.

"I guess I should go and let you get some sleep then," Xander said finally, moving slightly towards the door.

"Yeah," she said showing him out, "So we'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yeah. Goodnight Faith." And then he left, Faith smiled as she closed the door behind him. As she took her boots off and carefully climbed into bed, she wrapped her arm around Lexie and couldn't help but have a good feeling about tomorrow.

The best nights sleep Faith had had in years was ruined by Ellie shaking her shoulder in a way that suggested she had been trying to wake her for some time. Grumbling some weak threats, she reluctantly opened her eyes.

"What time is it?"

"It's just after 7 o'clock"

"That had better be a joke Eloise," she groaned, her annoyance at being woken up clearly evident by the use of her step-sisters full name.

"Fred's waiting for you downstairs. Xander too." And that's all it took to get the Slayer up out of bed. "You go down Faith; I'll get Lexie up and dressed.

"Okay." She replied throwing on jeans and a t-shirt. As she headed out the door, she quickly double backed and hugged Ellie. "Thank you."

As she walked into the lobby, she nervously smoothed down her shirt. She wasn't afraid of the test results, she knew that Xander was Lexie's father, what she was afraid of was his reaction to the news. He may have said that is what he wanted, but he had just gone through the biggest battle of his life, and nit without loses. What if it was just conflicted emotions talking, and really, he wasn't didn't want the responsibility? Was she ready to take care of a kid on her own? Sure, she had Ellie, and if Faith asked, she would stay, but she also had a dream job waiting for her in Europe, and Faith new she wanted to take it. But she also didn't want to screw up with Lexie.

However nervous Faith looked, Xander was doubly so. She watched him pace the lobby floor a few times before letting him know she was there.

"Hey," she struggled not to laugh when he jumped in shock.

"Hi! You okay?" he said anxiously.

"Yeah. You?" he nodded distractedly, "So did you have a little too much caffeine this morning? You seem a little jumpy," she realised that it wasn't really fair to tease him under the circumstances, but she had never seen anyone look so nervous.

"What? No! Sorry, I guess I'm just a little nervous," he found it a little odd that the smile she gave him calmed him a bit. There wasn't anything particularly special about the smile, it just let him know that he wasn't alone in this, and that meant a lot.

"So, where's Fred?"

"In the office, waiting for us. You ready?"

"Lead the way," as they walked across the lobby, Faith couldn't help but notice how quiet it was, there was no one around. "Where is everybody, I thought at least the grown ups would be awake,"

"They went out to breakfast," Xander told her.

"What, all of them?"

"Yeah Angel told them there was no food in the kitchen, so they had no choice. There's still a few in bed, but yeah, most of them went."

"Huh. Damn, I was getting kinda hungry,"

"That's okay," there's plenty of food in the kitchen," he smirked, "he just said that to get rid of them all."

"Really?" Faith smirked, impressed, "You know, if you keep grinning like that, I might actually start thinking you Angel," Xander immediately wiped the smile off of his face, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," he might have tried to deny it, but they were suddenly at the office door. The moment was finally here.

"So," Xander said to Fred, "What's the verdict?"

"Okay, so you know I took a swab from the three of you, and well, this is the part where I would usually start rambling on about the wonders of science, but I'm sure that y'all just wanna know the results," Xander nodded, not bothering to try and speak, "There's really no questioning the results, You're defiantly both her parents."

And just like that, Xander Harris' life just gained a whole new meaning.

Faith watched him closely as he took in the news. This was the moment she was most afraid of, it was when she would find out if he had meant it when he said he wanted it to be him; if he had been honest. She didn't even notice Fred discreetly leave the room.

"You okay?" she asked him. He laughed softly.

"Yeah, I am. I think I'm more okay than I have been in a long time," he told her. He couldn't describe the emotions that he was feeling, there were too many; too intense. He looked up at the mother of his child, who he knew, through no fault of her own, still wasn't sure he was being sincere. "Really I am."

He tried to put everything he could into those three words, to show her that he meant it, that he was going to stick around, and you know what? She understood. He saw her face soften and she smiled, "So," she said, taking a deep breath, "Do you want to meet your daughter the?"

Giles, Willow, Dawn, Kennedy and Buffy sat quietly eating in a nearby diner. Things were a little tense between them, mostly due to Buffy's outburst yesterday. She had tried to explain everything, especially after her talk with Xander earlier, but until she knew herself what her problem was, it would be difficult.

Dawn was the first to break the silence.

"Do you think she looks like Xander or Faith?"

"Don't know," Kennedy answered, "She'll have brown hair, I guess, and she'll have brown eyes, right?"

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves, we don't even know for certain that Xander is her father," Giles said logically.

Dawn studied him out of the corner of her eye. It was safe to say that Giles was one of the most intelligent people she was ever likely to know, and she knew that even if it appeared that he wasn't sure about something, if you looked closely enough, you could sometimes figure out what he really thought. Giles had certain tells, just like every one else, when he was frustrated, or when there was an impending apocalypse, he would clean his glasses, but when he had made certain opinions about something, he would steeple his fingers in a Dumbledore type fashion, but maintain his diplomatic 'on the fence' façade.

Right now sawn could tell that he had a fair idea what the results would be, one way or another. He had some kind of Watcher's intuition or something.

"What do you think the test will say?" she asked him, not sure whether he'd give anything away.

"I think that," he paused, "if the test is positive, that Xander will make an excellent father, and that if the test is negative, he will still be an excellent father."

Dawn smiled; she had a feeling that it would be good news.

Not even a psychotic preacher from the South could scare him as much as he was scared now. This was without a doubt the singularly most significant moment of his life, he just hoped he wouldn't screw up. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled loudly, trying to rid himself of these nerves with one breath. Needless to say, his attempts were futile. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Faith watching him in amusement. He tried to glare at her, but in his current state of anxiety, he imagined he looked no more intimidating that a puppy.

"They can smell fear, you know," she joked, he tried to glare harder and she laughed, "I felt the same yesterday; scared shitless, but it'll be okay. Just be yourself and she'll love you, I promise. So come on Harris, lets go and have breakfast with our daughter."

As far as pep talks go, it wasn't the most dramatic, but it was defiantly heartfelt, and just what he needed to here. He smiled gratefully, and when she returned it, he took her hand gently and let her lead him to the kitchen, where Lexie and Ellie were waiting.

She was sat at the table, waiting for Ellie to make her some pancakes when faith and Xander came in. when she looked up and gave Xander a shy smile, he almost died, it was the same smile he saw in the mirror everyday.

"Lexie, Faith said, "This is your Daddy."

"Hi sweetheart, it's nice to meet you," he said softly, not really sure of what else to say.

"Hi," the little girl said softly. Her aunt had told her she would meet her daddy today, and that she just had to be her self, and that he would love her, so she wasn't scared. "I drew you a picture," she told him happily, handing him the drwing she had done yesterday with Faith, complete with a tall, one eyed man with dark hair.

It was the best gift he had ever been given.

TBC...

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