Wesley was searching the streets of Sunnydale. What he was looking for, Faith wasn't

sure. She had asked, but he'd said they weren't going to the Magic Box. She was all for

putting off meeting the Scoobies, but what her Watcher had up his sleeve was beyond her

for the moment.

"Don't worry, Faith. I do know what I'm doing."

"Wes, you drag me down here and now you're not headed for the Scoobies. What's up

with that?" Faith asked. "I thought we were going for help."

"We are. Travers' men won't be fooled by Angel and Gunn for long. Once they figure

out that we not only aren't there, we aren't coming back, they will come looking for us

here. We need a place to hide and I have some where to go if I can just find it. AH!

There it is. The Winchester Garage."

"A garage? Named after a rifle? Wes, did we step into the Twilight Zone while I wasn't

looking?"

Wesley chuckled. "No, Faith. The garage is owned by a family by the name of

Winchester. An obscure branch of the famous rifle making family I do believe. They are

demon hunters by profession and mechanics by trade. They've recently moved to

Sunnydale due to,...Well, I'd rather not explain as it isn't my story to tell. I hope you

understand."

Faith nodded her head. "Yeah, I get it. As long as the Scoobies don't think we're going

behind their backs. This is their town. The last thing I want to do is cause trouble right

off the bat."

Wesley pulled his car around to the back of the garage. "Hopefully at least one of Buffy's

friends should be here. If not, it won't take long to send her a message." He got out of

the car and opened the passenger side door for her. Then he led her into the garage.

There were two hunks standing by the office door. They were watching the only car in

the garage with shock written all over their faces. Faith didn't know what was so

surprising about the car, but she did know the giggle that was coming from underneath it.

"Hey, B. Is that you?"

"Faith?" There was a quick shuffling under the car and Buffy slid out from underneath.

Unusually, she was filthy and dressed in torn jeans and a worn plaid flannel shirt. Her

hair was up and there were grease streaks all over her clothes and face. The smudges on

her face looked suspiciously like fingerprints from fingers that were far too large to be

hers.

"Wes, what are you two doing here? I thought you were picking up Giles from the airport

today? And Faith, aren't you still supposed to be in jail? Or did I lose a letter? Oh, crap I

lost a letter didn't I?"

Before she could panic, Wesley held up his hand. "Buffy," Wesley began. "This is an

emergency. I sent Doyle to pick up Mr. Giles. He'll be bringing Mr. Giles and Mr. Giles'

guest straight to Sunnydale. Quentin Travers arranged for Faith to be released on a

technicality. He did it because she is going to turn eighteen in just a few days."

John had crawled out from under the car while Wesley had made his announcement and

got a good look at Buffy's reaction. He didn't know what Faith's turning eighteen had to

do with anything, but the way Buffy just froze told him it wasn't going to be good. "Do

they know you have her?" Buffy asked Wesley flatly. John had never heard that tone of

voice out of her before, not even when she was dealing with Hank. Whoever this guy

was, John didn't want to be in his shoes. Whatever he had done to put that much ice in

Buffy's voice, John wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Unfortunately yes, they do. I just managed to get her away from the council's lawyer at

the prison." Wesley stood there waiting. Either Buffy would help them or they would

have to go on the run. He prayed that the letters Faith and Buffy had been exchanging for

the last few months had done the good they were intended. He knew it was too soon to

hope for a real friendship between the two slayers, but he did hope that the animosity had

died.

"Sam, start the Scooby tree. Wes, does Giles know about this?"

"Yes. He is the one who informed me."

Buffy nodded her head and began to pace around the garage. "We can't do anything until

the other's get here."

"Faith, Wesley, have the two of you eaten yet?" John asked. They shook their heads.

"Dean, take them upstairs. Sam, send everyone up when they get here. Buffy, let's go get

some food to feed this crew." From the tone John used the boys knew that he would

accept no arguing. Silently they went about their jobs. Sam didn't mention Faith or

Wesley when he called Willow. Whatever was going on with them obviously shouldn't

be advertised. Dean took both of their latest guests upstairs to the apartment.

Dean stood at the breakfast counter and fixed several sandwiches. He had heard his dad's

remark to Buffy about going to get food, but according to Dawn, Faith was a slayer. That

meant she should have a huge appetite and from the looks of her, she hadn't been feeding

it. She wasn't quite the walking skeleton Xander had described Buffy as being during a

really bad time, but then it looked like she had more to start out with than Buffy did.

Faith was taller and had more curves, especially if the clothes she was wearing were any

indication of her normal weight. Faith looked, well he hated to think this of a slayer, but

she looked almost fragile. She was also extremely nervous, pacing around the living

room and checking around the curtains. He didn't know who this Quentin Travers was,

but from the reactions from all three of them this guy was planning something nasty for

Faith. He knew he was a sucker for a good looking woman in trouble, and Faith fit the

bill. But there was something that had him relaxing almost before he realized it. Buffy

was getting ready to defend her or do something along those lines. Whatever Faith had

done besides killing that human on accident, Buffy at least, had already forgiven her.

That was good enough for him. He had come to trust Buffy's judgment on things she

knew about and he didn't. He carried the sandwiches over to her. "Here, it looks like the

prison had you on half rations for a while."

"You tryin' to tell me somethin'?" Faith smirked as she took the plate. She knew she

hadn't been eating enough. She'd lost way too much weight, even she could see that. She

wasn't looking like one of those Jews out of Nazi Germany just yet, but if Wes hadn't

gotten the warden to agree to his paying for her to have extra food she probably would

have been. He'd also brought in food at every visit and she'd inhaled it, but even with all

of that, she'd been losing weight steadily. She'd had no idea that just struggling to learn to

control the slayer would be such a workout. She only hoped that the lessons she had

learned in that area would still work out here in the real world.

"Just that you look like you'd fit that outfit really well if you'd put some weight on." Dean

flirted with her. He didn't want her to see how concerned he was. It looked like Faith

was another slayer who needed some help with the feeding department.

The door to the apartment opened and Faith spun around. Dean could see that she was

really worried. Willow, Xander, Tara, Joyce, Sam, Buffy and John all walked in carrying

donut boxes. Faith relaxed upon seeing the food. She remembered how the Scooby gang

worked. If anything serious was going on it was pizza they brought to the research

sessions (and donuts if the time of day wasn't right for pizza). The food meant that they

were going to help her.

"Ok, everybody's here except for Dawn and Spike. I take it he's baby-sitting?" Dean

asked as he grabbed two of the donut boxes from his brother.

"Uh huh." Willow nodded. "We left them at the Magic Box."

Faith walked to the center of the room. Before they got started on her little problem with

the English Idiots, she had something she had to get off her chest. "Um, I know I've said

this in the letters I wrote to all of you, but this is the first time I've seen you so I need to

say it again." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I know I went off the deep end there

for a while, but that was no excuse for the things I did. If you think I should just let them

take me for this test thing, I'll go." She shrugged. In her mind these were the only people

who really had the right to put her through the test. They were the heroes she had

wronged. If they thought she needed to be put through it she would go without protest.

"Faith, sit down, eat and shut up." Xander said. "There is no way any slayer should ever

be put through that. Yes, you screwed up. Yes, you tried to kill us. But you didn't and

you went out and put yourself in jail to pay for that. It isn't your fault that you got out

before any of us were ready for it. But the first thing out of your mouth is an apology,

and that means a lot. There isn't one of us here who hasn't screwed up more than once.

You've done your time and paid for it. Now we need to deal with the jackass Watcher

and his idea of an appropriate coming of age present."

"For those of us who just got here." Sam asked to distract people's attention from Faith

and Dean who handed Faith a glass of milk and made sure she had lots of donuts, "What

are we talking about?" From the looks of things to him, it seemed that Dean had finally

found someone else to mother. Not that he'd ever warn Faith that his brother was the

biggest mother hen in the universe.

It was Buffy who answered. "If a slayer makes it to her eighteenth birthday she's put

through a test called the Cruciamentum. Basically they give her a medication that takes

away her powers and then she's locked up with a vampire and told to kill it or be killed. I

don't know how they normally get a slayer ready for the test. When I went through it, the

vampire was even worse than usual and he got loose. He captured mom and told me he

had her. It was a trap of course." Buffy gave her mom a hug. "I tricked him into

drinking holy water, but I don't know what they are planning for Faith."

"Travers is planning on making sure Faith dies in the test. He won't allow her any

weapons." Wesley said. He was holding himself as still as he could. It wouldn't do any

good for him to throw a fit. Travers wasn't in the room for him to strangle after all.

"No fucking way." Dean said. He had unconsciously moved in front of Faith to protect

her.

"Exactly!" said Willow.

While everyone got down to discussing precisely what they would do to the lawyer and

retrieval team. "We can tie them up, paint them like an American Flag and send them

back to England!" Sam was watching his father and brother silently fight over who's

slayer got more donuts. As both Faith and Buffy were concentrating on the problem at

hand and barely noticed more than someone had handed them another donut, he didn't

think they were aware of the strange competition. He could just see now how big their

food bill was going to get. Especially as Faith needed fattening up. He'd have to talk to

Willow about setting up a feed the slayers fund. It would be worth the effort to see the

look on John and Dean's faces when he handed them the paperwork for the account.