Chapter Seven

It had taken Tess a couple of days to recover completely from the wound. But it gave her two days to catch up with her odd group of friends. The pod squad hadn't seen her in two days, until the start of school on Monday, but they had an even harder time getting to Tess to apologize. Faith may have promised not to hurt them, but they didn't want to chance anything. Tess had gotten the school to allow Faith to sit in on Tess' classes until the break in a few days. Winter break started on Wednesday so there wasn't that big an issue of Faith tagging along.

There was even less a chance of finding Tess after school, her and Faith had disappeared leaving the Squad to wonder where to. Though they did get a hint when they overheard Kyle complimenting Tess and Faith about how well their act was coming. It had to mean one thing; Tess and Faith were planning to compete in the town's Winter Talent Competition. It was something Isabel had organized to relieve the stress that came with being the Christmas Nazi. She found organizing everything was too much, so she created the talent competition to try and lift spirits before the holidays.

And that was how it came to be that the Pod Squad and their human counterparts found themselves out side the town square waiting for the Competition to start. The determination of the winner was found sort of like the T.V. competitions. There were five judges who rated the acts, then they narrowed it down to three finalists who performed again, then chose a winner from that who had the choice to perform one last time, which meant that each act had to have at least two more parts to it.

So they watched as the announcer came on the makeshift stage announcing the first ones to go…

I

I

Meanwhile back stage Tess and Faith were sitting on two of the numerous chairs, waiting for their act to be called, just talking. They had just started to reminisce about the first times they met Angel and his gang when three girls in army clothes came up to them.

"Hey, um…Tess, right?" One of them asked. Tess nodded. "Do you play…" she trailed nodding to the small black case by Tess' chair. She nodded again. "We need your help…"

I

I

Max rubbed his hands together, it may not snow in Roswell, but it did get pretty chilly out. He had been standing there for a half hour now and there was no sign of Tess or Faith. He was currently watching three Underclassmen girls singing and dancing to Survivor by Destiny's Child wearing Army clothes. He had to admit, they were pretty good, they had a recording of a violin playing the tune from the C.D. off stage.

According to Isabel, who managed to sneak a program out from the inner workings of the competition (they liked to leave people guessing as to who would be next), Tess and Faith were up next. They still had no idea what they were going to do; Kyle and Jim refused to tell. After all, with both Tess and Faith staying with them for the moment, how would they not know what they were doing?

So the lights dimmed and the girls ran off once their act was over. Max found himself waiting with betted breath as the lights came back on. Then he heard it, a violin was coming from the left of the stage as Faith walked on to that corner of the stage followed by a second violin on the right where Tess came in. Max stared at the blonde on stage; she was beautiful in a beautiful light blue blouse and shimmery black skirt where as Faith wore a simple red button up shirt and black pants.

He thought that they were simply going to play a classical duet…but then the tempo picked up and he could see their fingers flying across the violins. About half way through the crowd started to clap along with them, making the Irish style that much more obvious.

They finished up with an impossibly fast ending, both bowing to the crowd, high fiving each other and walking off laughing and smiling. There was really no doubt in anyone's mind that they would be one of the finalists, so it really wasn't a shock when they were. The final three boiled down to Tess and Faith on violin, the three army girls, and two boys doing a mock combat thing from random movies.

Tess and Faith were the last ones to go, the crowd figured they must have been saving the best for last. They were amazing; they played facing each other as well as with their eyes closed later on, something that no one in the audience could even imagine being able to do. There was an especially complicated sounding tune played in the middle of the song, one that Tess played…after switching hands between the violin and the bow.

And so, after a few minutes of consulting, the judges called the three groups back on to announce that…

Tess and Faith, Irish Fury, as they had dubbed their act, had won!

Now it was time to see just what they had planned for their last act. They disappeared off stage for a minute before dragging a keyboard on stage along with a…tambourine?

The crowd was confused to say the least, especially when Tess played a few cords to test it out and Techno sounding pings resounded. The crowd grew apprehensive. There had been an act in the beginning that tried to mix a classical string quartet of a violin, cello, harp, and viola; with Techno remixes…it was horrible.

But Tess and Faith obviously knew what they were doing. They started off on violins with Faith moving onto to Tambourine while Tess played a solo. She jazzed it up; dancing with the tambourine while Tess put the Violin aside and moved onto the keyboard. The tambourine and the techno worked surprisingly well together.

It was over too soon, but before Max knew it Tess was right beside the group receiving a hug from Kyle. Max's fists, unconsciously, curled into fists at his side at the display of affection.

"Wow that was amazing!" Kyle exclaimed while hugging his sort of sister.

"Thanks K-Man," Faith said walking over to them holding the trophy, "Tessie here really surprised me. I thought she'd be horrible after moving here. But I think she improved."

"It's not a thought, it's a fact," a deep voice said from behind her. Faith and Tess turned at the same time, smiles growing on their faces.

As soon as they saw who was behind them, Tess let out a squeal before launching herself at the tall broodish man behind her. "ANGEL!" She yelled as he returned the hug.

"Hey, hey, hey, I do believe that's my man," said a soft feminine voice coming up from the side of him.

"Hey, Cordy," Faith said, hugging her a little, "Long time no see, how's LA?"

"Cordy!" Tess shouted as soon as she saw the older woman.

The Roswell gang just stared at each other, wondering just who these people were.

After laughing with this Cordy person, Tess turned to the group, "Guys, this is Angel and Cordelia, his girlfriend…"

A clearing of the throat drew Tess' attention to the couple beside her. Cordy brushed some hair from her face with her left hand, flashing Tess the sight of something sparkly on her finger. She looked up at Cordy questioningly, Cordy just nodded a response.

"I…I mean…fiancé?" she asked, Cordy nodded again, squealing as Tess hugged her once again.

She soon left, dragging Cordy and Angel off with her. Faith laughed at Tess' reaction. She knew all about Angel and Cordy, he had come to Sunnydale to talk to Buffy about it. He wanted to make absolutely sure that she'd be alright with it. It was really a coincidence; Buffy had wanted to go to LA to make sure that her relationship with Spike would be alright with him.

"I…I didn't know…" a voice trailed, drawing Faith's attention to Isabel, "that Tess played the Violin."

"Well, you wouldn't, would you?" Faith replied. She looked at Isabel, according to Tess; she had been one of the first friends she made here. It did seem like Isabel truly did want to be friends with Tess, like she was truly sorry that she had done as Max said and stayed away. She sighed, knowing that she'd regret it later. "Nasaedo took Tess to Ireland once…something about odd occurrences there…" She took a breath, "Anyway, there was a festival going on in the town and Tess saw people doing Step dancing and playing traditional tunes on the fiddle, violin, whatever. Tess absolutely loved it and decided to learn Violin and play some tunes for us."

"So…why'd you learn to play?" Kyle asked, "You never did strike me as the fiddling type."

Faith laughed along with him at that, "No I'm not, not normally anyway. But school is a bitch. My guidance councilor decided that I needed an extracurricular activity; she suggested that I learn an instrument. I figured that since Tess already knew how to play the Violin, so I asked her. My mom offered to pay her, but…" she laughed in remembering, "Tess said that as long as I agreed to learn some Irish songs, she'd do it for free. And here I am, playing Irish music on a Violin."

"Well, you girls sounded great." Jim said, patting Faith on the shoulder gently. He had learned not to sneak up on this particular young woman. She was listening to some music when she had been making dinner the other day, he had put his hand on her shoulder…and like Tess had done to that blonde man…she flipped him over her shoulder.

"Yes you did," said Buffy walking up to her.

"Yup, who knew that Irish music could be so entertaining," Spike agreed placing an arm around Buffy's waist.

There was a lag in the conversation, letting the group fall into an awkward silence. One that was thankfully broken by Kyle, "So Faith," he started, "Was that Tess just before you went on?" He asked, he had noticed that when the army girls went on the Violin sounded to real to be a recording.

Faith nodded, "Yup that was Tess, they needed someone to play the basic tune since their recording was lost. Good thing Tess listened to Destiny's Child." She turned to Isabel, sensing that she might be interested in what she had to say, "Tess can play all kinds of music on the violin, Classical, Irish, even Western." She started laughing at Jim's interested expression. She could tell by his record collection that he was a fan of the western persuasion.

Faith was about to go on to describe other instruments that Tess could play, but Tess had started heading back over with Angel and Cordy in tow.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" she exclaimed hitting Faith on the arm playfully.

"They made me promise," Faith shrugged.

Tess laughed at her before turning to pull Buffy off to the side. "Don't forget," she said, hoping that no one else was listening, "8:00 on Friday."

"Tess, I got it," Buffy assured her, "We'll be there."

Tess smiled before turning to go walk away with Faith, Jim, and Kyle leaving Buffy and the gang to head off for themselves…leaving Michael to wonder just what was happening 8:00 on Friday…

A/N – Sorry if this chapter is a little weird, I was watching some old DVDs of mine and saw some Irish dancing. The music just inspired the chapter, although I did picture Tess playing the Violin with Faith, but I couldn't figure out what would wow the crowd enough for them to win. If anyone has the Feet of Flames CD, or wants to hear the songs that Tess and Faith play, they are on the Feet of Flames CD. The first one is Duelling Violins, the second is Strings Of Fire, and the last one is Dance Above The Rainbow.

I know the time lines and plots of the Buffy and Angel series might be a little out of whack, so just to clarify some things…Angel is the head of Wolfram and Hart, Cordy isn't dead, Connor is a baby, Fred isn't dead she's with Weasley who never tried to steal Connor. I know it's pretty messed up but that's the only way I could make my story work.

So…

What's happening at 8 on Friday? What other surprises lurk within our favorite blonde? And an even better question, to hint as to what may happen in the next chapter, is everyone in Roswell the same religion?