AN: IT'S ONE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. I GO BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW AND I CAN'T SLEEP. I DON'T WANT TO GO, THIS VACATION, THINGS HAVE BEEN STARTING TO MAKE SENSE IN MY LIFE AND I DON'T WANT TO LOSE THAT. I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M WRITING THIS HERE, BUT I GUESS IT MAKES IT EASIER. ANYWAY, LACK OF SLEEPS MEANS I NEED TO WRITE, SO HERE I AM. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN READY AND ACCOUNTED FOR.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN IT AND I NEVER WILL.

RATING: PG-13, NOT GOING TO BE R UNLESS I GET SOME REQUESTS FOR THAT STYLE OF CONTENT.

Chapter Eighteen

Joyce Summers woke early that morning. This was unusual for her under any circumstances, but she didn't have to go to the gallery that morning, making it a perfect opportunity for a lie-in. Unable to go back to sleep, she washed and dressed silently in the pre-dawn quiet.

As she passed the guestroom, the partially opened door revealed that Faith was still asleep. Joyce smiled as she watched the girl, she had been uneasy about inviting Faith into her home at first, but the girl was really very nice under her acerbic façade.

She went down the stairs softly, so as not to wake Faith. She knew from experience that Slayers had sharp hearing and she did not wish to disrupt her from her rest. She would wager that the girl had not been asleep more than two hours.

She puttered around for a while, dusting and straightening photo frames. Then she seated herself in the kitchen as she poured a cup of black coffee. When she had made the coffee, she picked up the book she was reading; 'The life and work of Salvador Dali', and nibbled gently at a blueberry muffin she had found in the fridge.

She had opened the blinds when she had entered the kitchen and now had the satisfaction of watching the sun perform its usual antics as it rose elegantly into the rosy dawn sky. As a non-morning person, she was not accustomed to watching the sun's rising, so she enjoyed it maybe more than it deserved.

The sunrise had reminded her of one thing however. Buffy had been gone for a long time and Joyce was worried about her daughter. Buffy had made certain to send regular letters, to both her and Faith, but Joyce still worried that something had happened to her daughter.

She worried about Buffy constantly now. If only Buffy didn't persist in keeping up that wretched slaying business. It had dragged her all the way to England, when she should be at home, trying to find a nice, normal young-man to settle down with. It was all the fault of that Mr Giles and that vampire. What kind of name was Angel, anyway?

Buffy would see sense when she returned that Christmas, she would have to. Joyce had briefly entertained the idea that Buffy would find a nice young-man at the school she had gone to, then she had remembered Buffy saying something about the school being for witches and wizards. Joyce wouldn't have her only daughter consorting with those freaks.

It had occurred to Joyce that the reason why Buffy persisted with her slaying was because of her exposure to those freakish people she hung around with. That would have to stop. She would make sure that Buffy never saw Mr Giles or that Angel fellow again. And the others, Buffy had mentioned Oz being a werewolf, of all things, as well as a musician in a rock band. Willow was a witch, Buffy had said, who apparently practised two different kinds of magic at the same time. Joyce hadn't even known that there was more than one kind, nor did she particularly care to find out the difference. The Harris boy could supposedly tell whether or not someone was lying, and that was too freakish for Joyce's tastes.

She suspected that there was something unnatural about the Chase girl as well, but Buffy had never mentioned any specifics, except that she was good at a subject that Buffy described as to be like Chemistry. Joyce supposed that Cordelia could be all right, she reminded her of the friends Buffy had had before they had moved to this awful town.

As she contemplated this, she did not hear the sounds that signalled that Faith was up and moving around. Therefore she jumped slightly with shock as the dark-haired girl entered the kitchen. However, she managed to conquer her surprise quickly and smiled at Faith. Faith smiled back, digging through the refrigerator for the last chocolate muffin.

Joyce had been surprised to discover that Faith held a passion for food, particularly sweets and chocolate. Buffy had always eaten very little at all and had always appeared to be something of a waif. Faith had a decent appetite and was therefore better built than the other girl. She could only hope that Buffy would follow Faith's lead and stop acting like such a Prima Donna all the time.

Faith flopped down into the seat opposite her and poured herself a glass of milk. She quickly consumed her muffin and washed it down with two glasses of whole-fat milk. She then went over to the side and opened the cookie jar. Picking out two double-stuffed Oreo cookies she sat back down and proceeded to eat the cookies with the same determination as she had consumed the muffin only minutes earlier.

Joyce heard a tapping at the window and watched as Faith swung smoothly from the bed to the window. She watched as the brunette looked out of the window and then slid the glass up. A snowy white owl flew in, an envelope clasped in its beak. Faith gently stroked the owl as she opened the letter and read through it quickly. The slayer pulled open a drawer and grabbed a bag containing some strange pellets. Faith pulled out a handful and proffered them to the owl, which peered at her for a moment before selecting a few of the largest pellets.

Faith turned back to Joyce. She smiled slightly and said,

"Sorry, Mrs S. That's Angel's owl, she's called Hedwig. B just wrote saying that they'd all just apparated, that's some magic thing, to the mansion and are coming to see you as soon as it's dark."

Joyce made a non-committal sound in the back of her throat. What kind of freaks used owls to send letters? And Angel was taking Buffy more and more away from her, pulling her into his twisted world. The owl, Hedwig, took a few more pellets from Faith's open hand and stared expectantly at the slayer. She frowned and smacked her palm against her forehead in exasperation. She rummaged around on her desk and turned the parchment, parchment? over. She scribbled a reply on the back and handed it to the owl.

The snowy owl flicked her wings elegantly and turned a baleful eye on Joyce. She frowned and hooted in dismissal, spreading her wings and soaring gracefully out of the open window. Not only were these people abnormal, Joyce thought, but they were stupid. An owl flying in broad daylight, holding a letter. Anyone would notice that, she thought, conveniently ignoring the fact that it had taken her almost three years to discover that her daughter slayer vampires on a nightly basis. And she had only found that out because Buffy had told her.

Faith watched as the owl winged away, then she flopped back down into her chair, reading a magazine. Joyce watched her for a moment, and then stood up. It was time to go to the gallery. There, she could think of a plan. She would find a way to get her daughter away from those freaks. Buffy would have to understand that it was for her own good.

And Angel. If Joyce had her say in it, Angel would be dust. Once that vampire was dead, everything would be alright. Yes, the first thing she would do would be to get rid of the vampire.

As soon as Faith heard Buffy's mom's footsteps leave the house, she dropped her magazine and ran upstairs. It was too risky to go outside by the main door, so she would have to take the alternative route out of the house. She ran into her room and walked over the window and pushed it open. Judging the length of the drop, she jumped from the window, bending her knees to brace against the impact.

Then she began to run. She didn't run so fast as to attract attention, but fast enough to reach the mansion quickly. She had to speak to the others before Joyce did.

Faith knew the way to the mansion easily, so she didn't really watch as she ran. It was too sunny for vampires to be out, and other demons preferred the night, even if they weren't confined to it as vamps were. When she came to Crawford Street, she was somewhat surprised to see that the lights were on.

She didn't know why she was surprised, she had known that Buffy and Angel were living at the mansion, so the lights would have to be on, given that Angel didn't have a great fondness for natural light. She came to a halt just outside the front door, pleased to be able to control her speed. When she had first been called, Faith had had a series of unfortunate accidents with property. The advanced strength, speed and reflexes that being the slayer gave her were useful in fighting vamps, not so useful when trying to open a door.

Faith had lost count of the number of things she had broken during the beginning of her calling. At first, she had not really understood the extent of the power that she possessed as the slayer. She had learnt this the hard way. For the first time in Faith's boringly unremarkable life, she was something special, something unique.

Then she had found out that she was not as unique as she thought. There was another Slayer. A slayer who had died and come back. A slayer who had fought one of the most feared vampires in history and lived. A slayer who operated on the very Mouth of Hell itself. A slayer that many vampires and demons saw her as a legend to be feared and respected. There had even been rumours of this Slayer having converted Angelus, the scourge of Europe, to the side of good.

Faith had hated the other slayer at first, had hated her for taking away the one thing in the entire world that made her something different, something special. But, when she heard of the other slayer's exploits, she found it difficult to hate her. The elder slayer seemed less like an actual person and more like a god. She had created an ideal warrior in her head, and made her into the elder slayer. She had modelled herself on the tales she heard of the other slayer, many of which seemed so ridiculous now.

Then her watcher had died. She had known that Kakistos would come after her next, so she had run. She had hated herself for it; she had told herself that the other slayer would never run, would never abandon her duty because she was scared for her own life. A woman who had given her own life would have no fear of dying to do what was right. Faith was a coward.

She had tried to do better. She had run to the Hellmouth, of all the places she could have run to, she ran to the centre of mystical energies. She realised that she had not just wanted to run from Kakistos, she wanted to meet the legendary slayer who had died. And she had. The other slayer had arrived back in Sunnydale.

When Faith had heard the local harmless demons talk about how The Slayer had returned, they always called her The Slayer, and she had wanted to know where she had gone. Her mind had been full of grand ideas, of quests to find mystical artefacts, or hide dangerous ones from evil demons. Then she had found out that the other slayer had run away from home and had been wanted for questioning over a murder. She had discovered that the slayer was in fact called Buffy, what kind of name was Buffy?

But she was still intrigued by the other girl, wanting to know what it was that made her so special. Wanting to know more about her than just terrified whispers in smoky bars. So Faith had investigated. She had found out where the Slayer hung out. She had discovered the identity of the other girl's friends. She had found out that the slayer lived with her mother.

So Faith had hung out in the places she had heard the other slayer frequented, and she waited. It was three nights before she met the other girl. She had gone to the club, the Bronze. She had started to give up hope of ever meeting her idol. The moment she entered the Bronze, she felt it. She had thought at first that it was just the feeling she got when she was around a vamp, for there were enough people in the club for one of them to be a vamp.

Faith had surveyed the club, trying to locate her mystery vamp. She had barely taken notice of the two couples sitting on a sofa in one corner with a petite blonde. She had spotted the vamp and gone outside to stake him. She had been fighting him when the group from the corner had arrived. She had staked the vamps quickly, barely hearing the red-haired guy make a comment about there being a new slayer in town. She had introduced herself, if saying your name counted as an introduction.

Then she had turned to face the group. She knew instinctively which one was the other slayer. It was the petite blond girl who looked so pale and thin that she might snap if you hit her too hard. But Faith recognised that this was the girl she had come to meet. Recognised it in the confidant grip the other girl had on the stake she held. Recognised it in the determination in the other girl's stance. Recognised it in the way the other girl longed for the fight she was in. And recognised it most of all in the haunted shadows in the other girl's eyes.

Faith had wondered if that was what her eyes would look like when she had fought for as long as Buffy had, whether her eyes looked like that even now. But she doubted it. Faith had become disenchanted with men very quickly and knew herself to be very cynical where they were concerned. But her cynicism came with experience of the shallowness of man's character, of their desires. Faith's experiences fighting with demons had also disenchanted her to most of life, she knew about a darkness most other people could not even begin to imagine.

But Buffy was different. Buffy's eyes showed the shadows of remembered evils Faith could not begin to understand. Buffy's eyes had only been half-alive, as if half of her soul was missing. Faith now knew that it was Angel that had been missing. She had asked about him as soon as she could and had soon learnt that he was not a subject to be broached lightly

Faith was dragged from her reflections as the door swung open. She felt all the air being knocked out of her as Buffy drew her into an enormous hug. She choked slightly as the elder slayer forgot to control her strength as she squeezed the younger girl tightly. She knocked her fist on the other girl's back, not lightly, knowing that she didn't have to control her strength around this one person.

Faith felt comfortable with her strength around Buffy. She knew that the other girl's fighting abilities were the same as or greater than her own. For the first time in ages, Faith didn't have to worry about hurting people when she hugged them. Not that Faith hugged many people anyway. It was just that, she felt a kinship with Buffy. Faith did not know how the other slayers had managed, to know that they would never be able to find anyone who could come close to understanding them.

The speech that had decided the fates of so many came to Faith's mind then,

"In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will has the power and skill to fight the vampires, demons and forces of evil…"

Faith could not remember it exactly, only one word really mattered in it, 'alone'. But she was not alone any more, neither of them were. There was not merely one chosen one any more; there were two. And Faith knew that there would always be someone who understood what she felt, because Buffy was the only person in the world who could understand her.

Faith managed to escape Buffy's exuberant hug then and the two slayers entered the mansion. Faith noticed that, although Buffy appeared to have changed very little in appearance, there was something very different about her. Perhaps it was in the way the other slayer carried herself, the way her eyes seemed to sparkle and her lips seemed always to be fighting not to smile even more widely than they already were.

Faith followed Buffy into the room where they had all sat in the summer that seemed so long ago now. Everyone was gathered there again. It struck Faith just how different they all seemed. As with Buffy, they had not changed much in their appearance, but the way they carried themselves, the expressions on their faces spoke of a change that Faith could not begin to understand. Even though Buffy and the others had written to her faithfully all throughout the last few months, Faith still felt as if there was something that she had missed by not being there.

Faith watched in amazement as she saw Angel sitting in one corner of the room, talking quietly with Giles. She could not claim to have known any of them very well before the older slayer and her friends had left, but she had thought that Giles had hated Angel for what Angelus had done to the watcher and Jenny.

When Buffy and Faith entered the room, Angel looked up immediately from his conversation with the watcher and smiled. Faith almost gasped, the vampire was gorgeous. She had not noticed before, as she had been busier worrying about whether he was going to try and kill them all. Then Buffy ran across the room and kissed Angel, who swung her around slightly as he embraced her close to him. Faith knew that there was no chance that she would ever stand any chance with Angel. She also wondered what had happened to make Buffy and Angel so openly affectionate with each other, as the last few letters she had received had told Faith that Buffy and Angel were fighting a lot because of all the tension of being so close to each other.

As Faith looked at the couples sitting or embracing in the room, she felt like an outsider then all the others saw her and they all smiled at her. Faith smiled tentatively back at them, feeling for the first time in longer than she could remember that people were truly glad to see her. Faith, as the slayer, was used to people moving fast, but she still wasn't quite sure to be able to describe how all the others, even the normally aloof Cordelia, came so quickly to surround and hug her. Obviously, everyone was much closer now than she thought.

Looking at Xander and Cordelia, Faith realised that the relationship she had thought to be all about hormones was obviously something more. Cordelia had obviously mellowed in Xander's company and Xander looked truly happy with her. A glance at Willow and Oz proved that the witch and the werewolf were just as close as they had ever been, if not more so.

But it was Buffy and Angel who really looked the closest, the two of them were so obviously in love and silly with it that their love was practically tangible. Even now that the vampire and vampire slayer were not embracing, they stood close enough to be touching at all times. Looking at the two, Faith suddenly remembered that she had to tell Buffy about her mother. Brushing off all of the inquisitive though friendly questions, she sat down and turned her gaze onto her sister slayer.

"B, there's something wrong with your mom."

Buffy paled slightly and then asked,

"What's the what?"

Faith frowned slightly, not sure how to explain what had happened with Mrs Summers. She finally decided on what would be the best way to explain the problem and spoke seriously,

"It's kinda hard to explain, B. There was this demon a few weeks back that made everyone hate everything that was supernatural and your mum was the head of the movement against the supernatural. But that cleared up and things seemed to be mostly okay until a coupla days back."

Faith paused, unsure as to how to continue, Buffy prompted her,

"What happened next?"

Faith frowned again as she tried to explain something that she did not totally understand herself.

"Well, we went to buy Christmas trees so that we could decorate the house before you all got back, but your mom went over to this part of the place where all the trees had just died for no reason whatsoever, and she's been all wacky since then."

Buffy looked concerned,

"Wacky how?"

Faith sighed and tried to explain,

"Well, she's been really anti everything unusual, and given that we live on the Hellmouth there's a lot of that. And sometimes I catch her and she looks like she's talking to herself. It's really weird, even for the Hellmouth. I think she's been possessed or controlled by something. And recently I've heard her talking about killing Angel."

Buffy paled so much as to be even paler than her undead lover. Xander snorted,

"So, Mrs S wants to kill dead-boy here? And you think she's been possessed? I can go with the possession, seeing as this is the capital of weird around here, but I don't see that possession is the only reason why she's all anti-dead-boy. I mean I wouldn't be too keen on any, purely hypothetical, children of mine being in love with a vampire. And she has only really met Angel's not so pleasant version. I mean, I think that I agree with you over the possession or it being some kind of evil spirit, but I don't think that's the only problem we have here."

Buffy frowned, thinking this over,

"I guess you're probably right, Xander. My mom's never been exactly comfortable with any part of the whole slayer thing and whatever this evil is that's around, it's probably multiplying that. We'll slay the evil, whatever it is, and then my mom and I will have a nice long chat. So, Faith, what's the new watcher like?"

Before Faith could start telling the others about Wesley, Giles looked up from a book that he had opened as soon as Faith had finished her description. Faith could not remember seeing him looking so scared. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse with fear,

"Buffy, this thing that's effecting your mother, it's the First Evil."

TBC

CLIFFHANGER, MUAHAHAHAHA, AREN'T I EVIL? WILL TRY TO UPDATE SOON. PLEASE VOTE FOR FURTHER PAIRINGS:

FAITH/DRACO

FAITH/SPIKE

DRACO/Ginny

Ginny/FAITH