The Quickening

Previously:

Faith had trusted Gwendolyn, only to be betrayed. Though she had believed everything that Gwendolyn told her, she knew now that Gwendolyn was only preying on her weaknesses and desires to get Faith to trust her. Gwendolyn didn't believe that Faith could ever be anything more than a junkie's daughter from the shitty end of South Boston. In fact, Gwendolyn thought that was exactly what Faith was – hopeless. Faith could feel her dreams dying one by one with every step that she took. But she didn't care anymore. She felt nothing.

Chapter Twenty-Five:

A roar of thunder boomed overhead and a torrent of rain suddenly fell from the sky. Faith looked up into the swell of raindrops falling down on her. "That's all I need," she muttered to herself as she aimlessly walked the streets of Sunnydale. Midnight had long since passed and she had yet to return home. She knew Giles was probably worried about her. After all, Buffy had kicked her ass that night. Faith thought back to the fight with disgust. She was better than that. She should have been able to take Buffy without even trying. Perhaps Gwendolyn was right when she said that Faith wasn't fit to be called a slayer.

Anger flared up in Faith's heart and she repressed the urge to hit something. She was far too tired and sore to go to the cemetery to take her aggressions out on the undead. Any vampire she encountered would be more likely to take her out in her current condition than she would them. Faith looked down at her side, slowly lifting up her shirt. The skin was broken and it looked as if one of her ribs was poking through. Faith shuddered. She thought about going to the hospital, but she knew that they would ask too many questions that she couldn't answer. Giles would be more than willing to patch her up, unless he was angry that she had chosen the traitorous Gwendolyn Post over Buffy and the rest of the gang. Faith wanted more than anything to go home, curl up in her bed, and forget that any of the events of the night had ever happened, but she was too afraid and too proud to let anyone see what Buffy had been capable of doing to her.

Faith turned onto Main Street and walked as quickly as she could, despite the now throbbing pain in her side, to an abandoned building just a few yards ahead of her. It had been a consignment shop at one time, but went out of business as most stores in Sunnydale eventually did. Residents came and went far more quickly than in other towns, mostly because of the demons that preyed on helpless residents, and stores were constantly changing to fit the tastes of the shifting population. The rain was starting to pour down harder as Faith kicked in the back door of the building. It was dark inside, but her eyes quickly adjusted.

The store was empty, save for some things left behind by the previous owners. Making her way over the front corner of the store, Faith gingerly lowered herself to the ground. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. It felt like every part of her body was on fire, screaming out in pain. She could feel her eyes start to fill with tears. A strangled sob tore out of her throat and she buried her face in her hands, allowing herself a few moments of weakness. Finally, her sobs died down and she drifted into an uneasy and restless sleep.

……………………………

When Xander noticed that Faith had disappeared from the mansion after her fight with Buffy, he got worried. He had hoped that she left to go to the hospital for medical treatment, but when he checked the hospital only to find that she hadn't been there, he got anxious. Paying a quick visit to Giles, he explained what had happened. Giles looked more worried about Faith than angry about anything, which relieved Xander. The ailing Watcher had also instructed Xander to take his car and drive around town to try to find the injured slayer. By the time eleven o'clock had rolled around, Xander had started to freak out. He had driven everywhere he thought Faith might go, but he hadn't been able to find her.

Now, as he slowly drove down Main Street, it was nearly one o'clock in the morning and Xander was panicking. He knew from the way the fight had ended that Faith was in bad shape, emotionally and physically. His chest tightened when he thought back to the look of devastation that had been on Faith's face when Gwendolyn revealed her true intentions. He could only imagine how Faith must have felt – placing her trust in someone only to have that person betray her. The same thing had been happening to her over and over again her entire life. Xander didn't know how many more times she could handle having her trust shattered and thrown back in her face before she decided never to trust anyone again.

Pulling over to the side of the road, he slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. "Damn!" He yelled, frustrated and worried. The rain pounding down on his windshield was making it hard for him to see anything beyond the road in front of him. He realized that he was never going to find her by simply driving around. Getting out of the car, Xander zipped up his jacket to block out the rain. Then he began walking.

"Faith!" He called, hoping to attract her attention if she was near. "Where the hell are you?" He added, lashing his foot out and kicking over a trashcan. The abandoned consignment shop, where he used to buy some of his more colorful shirts, stood directly in front of him. The alley next to it had an overhang and Xander, desiring to shield himself from the rain while he thought of a better plan, ran over to the building and stood underneath its protection.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he looked around, and noticed that the alley had a trail of blood leading down it. His interest piqued, Xander followed the trail to the back of the old consignment shop, where he saw that the rear entrance had been busted in. Hope conquered his despair as he slowly walked into the abandoned store. He knew that it could have just been vandals who busted down the door, or even a vampire trying to get out of the rain, but he hoped that it was Faith instead.

"Faith?" He called out, walking further into the store. Finally, he reached the front of the building and noticed a figure slumped over in the corner. He knew instantly that it was Faith, not because he could see her, as the dark prevented him from seeing much of anything, but because he could feel that it was her.

"Hey," he said, rushing over to her and kneeling down beside her. "Wake up," he whispered, brushing a strand of hair away from the cut just above her eye. Faith stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She bolted upright, thinking that Xander was a vampire. "Relax…. relax," Xander said, throwing his hands up in a defensive motion. "It's just me."

"Xander?" Faith asked groggily, her mind still half asleep and sluggish from the pain that pervaded her senses upon her sudden waking. "What're you doing here?"

"I've been looking for you all night," Xander said, sitting down next to her. "You should be at the hospital."

"How would I explain my injuries, Xander? I guess I could always just tell the doctors that one of my supposed friends decided to beat the shit out of me," Faith shot back bitterly.

"She beat the shit out of me too, if you recall," Xander said, referring to the punch he took to the face for trying to stop Buffy from attacking Faith. Faith smiled a little.

"Yeah, I remember," she said, leaning back against the wall and looking down at her hands.

"I still can't believe that she threw a brick at you," Xander said, shaking his head. "That was kinda rough."

"Didn't feel so good either," Faith replied. "Did she destroy the Glove?"

"Yeah, burned it up in the Living Flame or whatever the hell it was called," Xander responded.

"Good. At least someone knows how to be a slayer," Faith muttered, more to herself than Xander. Xander looked over at her.

"Gwendolyn Post was a psychotic bitch who betrayed everything good in this world for black magic and power," Xander said forcefully. "She had no idea what she was talking about."

"Really? I should have known that she was evil the first second I laid eyes on her," Faith shot back.

"Buffy didn't," Xander replied.

"Buffy didn't spend as much time with her as I did. She knew exactly what to say to me, exactly what to do. She played me, Xander, and I was stupid enough to fall for it," Faith responded dejectedly.

"Everything's okay," Xander said, moving closer to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He could feel her muscles tense for a fraction of a second before she relaxed and leaned closer to him. "Buffy isn't angry with you and neither is Giles."

"How do you know that?" Faith asked doubtfully.

"I went to see Giles a couple of hours ago in the hospital," Xander replied.

"Why is he in the hospital?" Faith asked, looking over at him with concern evident in her eyes.

"Gwendolyn hit him in the back of the head with something large and heavy," Xander answered. "But he's fine. Should be released in the morning. Anyway, the point is, he wanted me to come look for you. He was worried about you."

"He probably just wants you to check up on me, make sure I'm not gonna fly off the deep end and attack his precious slayer again," Faith responded, despite the fact that she desperately wanted to believe that Giles really was concerned about her.

"You know that's not true," Xander replied wearily. "You're just as much his slayer as Buffy is."

"You can say that all you want, but it's not true. She is his slayer; I'll always be the other slayer. The backup. Maybe I shouldn't even be that," Faith mumbled.

"Things are never going to be right with you and Buffy. There's always going to be some tension, some competition. But you have to get used to that. So there's two slayers instead of one. Big deal. Stop thinking about it like it was some kind of mistake and think instead that maybe this is fate's way of evening the score. Maybe there's supposed to be two slayers now because of some great evil that's going to rise, or because the world just needs more protection than it did," Xander said softly. "The more you degrade who you are, the more you'll start to believe that you're nothing."

"I am nothing, Xander," Faith said sadly.

"No, you're not," Xander replied. "You're everything…. to me at least."

Faith sighed and closed her eyes, gently rubbing her forehead with her fingertips. Her anger and sadness had been replaced by a deep weariness that seemed to penetrate her bones. "Take me to the hospital, yeah?" Faith asked, looking over at him.

"Yeah," Xander replied, smiling crookedly. Lifting himself to his feet, he helped Faith up, and together they walked out of the store, and back to Giles's car.