Chapter 2

"Hi, Faith." Faith was startled out of her reverie waiting for Buffy. She stood, her jaw dropped to the floor. There's something different about her best friend since childhood. Alright, so she hasn't seen her in person for 8 years. But, there's something fundamental that changed about Buffy. Her skin is a darker tan; her eyes gleamed in a way that makes her almost unrecognizable, even though her physical attributes were unchanged. Buffy's still petite and slim, her blonde hair now short is just two inches above her shoulders.

"Buffy! Oh, I missed you so much." She pulled her into a big hug that left both friends a little teary.

"Me too. There's someone I'd like you to meet. Faith, this is my son Alex. Alex, this is Faith." Buffy pushed the little dark-haired boy towards a new old-member of his family.

"Your son?! I'm Aunt Faith now? But, how…you know." She looked at Buffy as if she had two heads, then she pulled herself together and immediately falls in love with the little boy with dark curls and beautiful eyes standing next to Buffy. She called him softly, "Hey Alex, I guess I'm your Aunt Faith? It's very nice to meet you."

"It's very nice to meet you too Aunt Faith." He shook her hand like a well-bred gentleman, then grinned and hugged her around the waist. Faith felt herself in the danger of becoming a puddle of bubbling maternal love. He's sooo cute!

The trio sat down to dinner. It was a friendly family restaurant, sort of hip and attracted many students too. The waitress beamed when Buffy and her son ordered in Mandarin.

"Cool B. You speak Chinese?"

"Mandarin, I went to Taipei last year and stayed about 7 months teaching English. The pay was good. Picked up a little of the language. But Alex is the linguist of the family."

"Taipei? As in Asia? Next to China? Taipei Taiwan? How come I didn't get a card from there?"

"Your geography's pretty good!" Buffy arched her brows, smirking, while Faith bites back a gasp. Buffy smirking? It's like Gandhi's in jail for beating someone up, Faith mused. Throughout the years, it's always been the bad girl Faith and good girl Buffy. People wondered how they became friends, but they did, and stayed friends through a plenty. And Buffy never smirked, always the sincere smiling girl.

"What happened eight years ago?" Faith blurted out. She hadn't planned on it. Oh, she planned on having this discussion someday, but not now! Faith didn't want to scare Buffy away…but the shock.

Buffy frowned and her eyes went cold, another attribute previously unseen in her. She looked towards her son, who was busy with the mangas stored in the restaurant. "Later? I promise." She pleads.

Faith nodded, steered the topic off to fill Buffy up with the on-goings in her life, and Buffy interjected with a few traveling tales of her own.

The food came when Faith just finished telling Buffy about how she met her "boyfriend-who-just-proposed-and-now-turned-fiancé". Faith was a photographer, some rich guy wanted a few pictures taken of his new conquests…vintage sport cars, and Faith was recommended for the job. So, she went in, photographed the cars and met a cute lawyer the client sent to keep an eye, so Faith won't scratch up his i precious i . "Doubt the guy ever knew about it." Faith smirked, wriggling her eyebrows.

"Right on the hood of the car?" Buffy gasped.

"Oh yeah."