The Quickening

Notes: Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming.

Previously:

Xander smiled a little, imagining that he should have been feeling depressed about being dumped not even an hour ago, yet, as he walked with Faith, his heart seemed light and free.

Chapter Sixteen:

Mr. Trick sauntered into the Mayor's office, his face a mask of calm, though he was rather nervous. The Mayor was a different kind of evil than he normally dealt with; the Mayor was evil sugar coated with a polite handshake and a smile. However, Trick imagined the same could be said for most politicians. "Ah, Mr. Trick," the Mayor said, swiveling to face him in his desk chair. "Thanks for stopping by."

"You called," Trick drawled in his slight southern accent.

"Yes, I just want to make sure we're clear on what's supposed to happen," the Mayor said, standing and walking over to one of his cabinets. "I want to make sure you can handle this. I've had to make certain deals to get where I am today, you know. This demon requires quite a tribute. Are you sure subcontracting is the way to go here?" The Mayor asked, swinging open the cabinet doors.

"He's worked this town before. Got quite a reputation. If he lives up to it, this place'll be in flames," Trick said, smiling uneasily as he watched the Mayor inspect the cabinet. It was filled with various occult paraphernalia. The Mayor reached in and picked up a shrunken head, lifting it by a strand of braided hair.

"I like to keep my campaign promises, Mr. Trick, if you understand me. Make sure this gets done," The Mayor said, lifting open a flap of dried skin on the shrunken head. Trick nearly vomited on his shoes. "Now…where did I put that scotch?"

…………………..

A week had passed since Faith first moved in with Giles. Despite some initial obstacles, they seemed to have found a comfortable rhythm from which to operate. Faith would leave with Giles in the morning for training, return to the apartment after she had trained with Buffy in the afternoon, and go on patrol at night. After her patrol, Giles would be waiting with dinner and they would eat together – something that had been entirely foreign to Faith. She had never participated in a family dinner, save the dinner she attended at Buffy's house when she first arrived in Sunnydale.

In Boston, she usually had to fend for herself. After her father had been put in jail, her mother turned to drinking and drugs as a means of escape from the harsh realities of life. She worked several jobs to pay the rent and provide other necessities, but she quickly became burned out working so many hours. She seemed to forget that Faith even existed. Faith was forced to fend for herself, despite being just a child, which included preparing her own meals. Faith was too young, when her father was jailed, to remember a time when she and her parents would gather around the dinner table, if that ever happened.

Now, however, she and Giles would eat together every night and he would ask her how her day went. At first, it bothered her. It seemed like Giles was trying to pump her for information. However, after a few days, she realized that he actually cared how her day went and that he was interested in what she had to say. Every once in a while Giles would ask her questions about her family and her life in Boston. However, she usually dodged those questions and he would back off. She knew that he was curious about what her life had been like before Sunnydale, but she wasn't entirely comfortable talking to him, or anyone, about Boston. Many things had happened to her there that she wished she could forget, but they plagued her dreams, turning them to nightmares, every time she closed her eyes.

As time passed, however, Faith found herself trusting Giles more and more; she found herself unconsciously starting to rely on him. She didn't worry about where her next meal would come from anymore because she knew that he would provide it. Every once in a while, she thought about telling Giles about her past, but something always held her back. She was afraid of what he might think of her if he knew what had happened to her.

Faith sat in the library, waiting for Buffy to finish her classes so that they could train and she could go back home. It had been a rather boring day. Giles had been busy with his actual job as librarian and Faith had been left to her own devices for most of the day. She had trained for a while, but being in the stuffy library soon began to grate on her nerves. After wandering around the halls, she had come back and gone to the stacks, falling asleep against the bookshelves.

"Hey," Buffy said as she, Xander, Willow, and Oz walked into the library. Xander looked up from a box he was carrying and smiled. Faith nodded back at them. Xander had told her about his breakup with Cordelia. As a result, Faith had made sure to avoid Cordelia, as she didn't want to create a scene. She wasn't even supposed to be in the school, since she wasn't a student, and didn't want to create any trouble for her newly found, stable situation.

"What's with the boxes?" Faith asked, noticing that everyone was carrying one.

"Candy bars," Oz said, as if that explained everything. Faith motioned for one of the group to elaborate.

"Fundraising thing," Xander said, dropping his box on the library table. "Snyder is making us do it."

"That's not so bad," Faith said. "They're just candy bars."

"Yes, they are just candy bars. But they're candy bars that none of us had any desire to sell, thus the problem," Buffy explained.

"However, if say, a faculty member wanted to purchase some high quality, chocolate candy bars at the decent price of a dollar a bar," Xander said, holding a candy bar up and modeling it for Giles, "this would be a lot easier."

Giles rolled his eyes. "If I buy a few, will you cease to bother me with them?"

"Absolutely," Xander said, smiling widely.

"Fine," Giles grumbled, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and handing Xander a few dollars.

"My first sale," Xander said proudly. "This is quite a moment." Willow and Buffy chuckled to themselves.

"So you ready to train?" Buffy asked, looking over at Faith.

"Been here all day, B," Faith replied, rising to her feet. Xander watched them walk off to the weapons cabinet.

"You're into her, aren't you?" Willow asked, watching Xander's eyes followed Faith. Xander quickly looked over at his best friend.

"What makes you say that?" He asked.

"You were staring at her ass," Oz replied, smiling as Xander reddened.

"Well, you were," Willow agreed.

"She's an attractive girl," Xander said, sitting down at the library table with the rest of his friends. "She's got an attractive ass, what can I say?"

"I wouldn't let her hear you say that," Willow noted. "She'd probably try to stake you. Either that, or she'd jump you."

"Nah, she's not like that," Xander said. "She just comes off that way. She's cool."

"How much time do you spend with her?" Willow asked, suddenly finding herself jealous. She had been around Faith enough to know that Faith was reckless and wild; however, Xander seemed to think differently about her.

"Not that much," Xander said shrugging, though he knew that he spent most of his free time with her.

"You seem to know her pretty well," Willow pointed out. Xander looked over at her. It almost seemed as if she was accusing him of something.

"She's a friend, Will. And she's really not that hard to get to know if you put forth some effort," Xander explained.

"So now that you and Cordy are over, you're not going to ask her out?" Willow asked curiously. Xander internally sighed. He wanted to ask Faith out, but he wasn't sure if it would be a good idea. They were getting along very well and she was starting to trust him. He didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that. At the same time, he felt like she would be willing to take their relationship to the next level. He wasn't so sure, however, that she had ever been in a relationship that didn't completely revolve about sex.

"I don't think it works that way with her," Xander replied softly. Willow looked over at him, surprised.

"So you are into her, then," Willow concluded.

"I'm gonna head out," Xander said, rising to his feet. "Got candy bars to sell and all that."

Faith blocked one of Buffy's punches and threw her elbow into the older slayer's stomach, knocking her away. Her gaze quickly shifted to the library doors and Xander's retreating form. With her slayer hearing, she had heard everything that he and Willow had been talking about, despite Xander's attempt to keep the conversation under wraps. She had been rather surprised when Xander didn't immediately make a move on her after the break up with Cordelia. Now, however, she realized that he was holding back because he didn't know how she would react to him. Even more surprising to her, however, was the fact that he defended her to Willow, one of his oldest friends. Faith was ripped out of her musings by Buffy's fist striking her face.

"I know, I know," Faith said, rubbing her jaw. "I'm paying attention."