The one thing that was quickly agreed upon was that Faith and Wesley shouldn't be left

alone. There was no telling how quickly the retrieval team would get to Sunnydale and

no one wanted to take any chances. While the Scoobies went back to work, and thus

being very visible to anyone looking for them, Wesley went downstairs with the

Winchesters. That left Faith and Buffy alone together. Finally after watching Faith fidget

for a few minutes, Buffy let Faith off the hook. "Look Faith, what Xander said goes for

all of us. You weren't the only one who made mistakes. I was just so caught up in mine

that I couldn't see anything else. Clean slate?" She offered, holding out her hand.

"Clean slate." Faith agreed, taking it. "I know there's a lot of things I should be asking

about. But B, I gotta know. What was up with the car? I ain't never seen you look this

crappy unless you got slimed on patrol or something. And the two hunks were wiggin."

Buffy giggled. She knew why Dean and Sam had wigged. And it had nothing to do with

the car. John had asked her to hold up some car parts underneath the car so he could bolt

them back into place, but they hadn't done much actual work on the car. Somehow with

all of the wiggling and hold this here and watch that, they'd gotten into a tickle fight. And

John was surprisingly ticklish. She didn't think they'd ever heard their dad giggle before.

At least the tickle fight had led to some smoochies. "I don't think they've heard their dad

laugh much. I mean, how was I to know John was ticklish there?" She gave Faith an

innocent look.

Faith wasn't fooled. "So you're dating the old guy huh? Not that it's any of my business,

but why him? The other two are way better looking."

"Actually I think you've hooked one of the other two." Buffy said with a smirk. "But the

answer to your question is a rather long story. First off, do you remember Dawn?" Faith

shook her head. Dean had mentioned a Dawn, but that was the first time Faith had heard

the name. "The memory spell must have just covered Sunnydale then. This group of

monks had this big blob of magical energy they were trying to keep out of the hands of

this hellgoddess. Her name was Glory. Before Glory killed them all off, they took some

of my blood and some of John's and made a magical test tube kid. That's Dawn. Then

they put the Key in her, aged her up to fourteen, gave us all fake memories of her being

my sister and plopped her down right in the middle of my life. We found out the truth

about five weeks ago. God, has it really only been five weeks?" Buffy started counting

on her fingers. "Yep, five weeks. Once we figured out that she was made to hold the

magical energy blob, she wanted to know why she didn't look like me if she was made

from my blood. That led to us finding out that she was my daughter, and then Glory

attacked us and Willow sent Dawn to her dad for protection." Buffy glared at Faith.

"Don't ever think that she isn't real. Just because she was conceived through magic rather

than natural means doesn't change the fact that she's my daughter." She smirked at Faith

as something else occurred to her. "Of course, if you hadn't been in prison and were in a

better spot to protect her, Dawn would be your kid, not mine."

"What!" Faith screeched. There was no way she could have a kid! She was too screwed

up, she wasn't stable, she...got a good look at Buffy giggling her way off the couch. She

grabbed the other slayer before she fell. "All right, all right. Good one, B. Now tell me

the truth."

Buffy stopped giggling. "It is the truth Faith. They just wanted a slayer to be her mother

and to protect her. She probably would have come to you as a baby or something instead

of how I got her as my little sister. They really didn't care. They just didn't want Glory to

get hold of the Key because if she did, she would have torn the dimensions apart. The

reason I was laughing was the look on your face. I haven't seen an expression that funny

since I gave Mr. Gordo to Dean.

"Anyway, Willow sent Dawn to John and wrote a note about Glory and Dawn being his

daughter. Now, he, Dean and Sam are all demon hunters and have been since Dean and

Sam were really little. I mean, Watchers start their training at ten, but those two were like

way younger than that. John said something once about at least Dawn didn't need to get a

swat on the butt to learn not to break salt wards. So I'm thinking they were really young

when John started fighting. John sent Dean and Sam here to Sunnydale to help with

Glory. That didn't take very long, and after she was taken care of John brought Dawn

back to Sunnydale. Then, my luck hits and we get hit with another apocalypse, only this

one isn't just find the thing and kill it. No, we have these little three foot long demons

swarming all over the place like lemmings! And we needed to keep them out of the

hellmouth. It lasted for a whole week! By the time that was over, they had settled down

here." Buffy waved her hands around at the apartment. "And John and I were doing the

parenting thing together. Then everybody and their dog started yentaing at us." Buffy

rolled her eyes. "Most of the time we just tell them off if they get to pushy, but the truth

is we just kind of fit. Between taking care of Dawn, and helping my mom, and patrolling

together, we just kind of fell into dating. Although we've had a lot of help falling." She

grumbled but Faith could tell she didn't really mean it. Faith could tell she was happier

than Faith had ever seen her. In fact she was so happy Faith was wondering at her own

blindness. How could she have not seen that Buffy was miserable when she first came to

Sunnydale? Yeah, ok, she had her own trama she was dealing with, but still.

"Good. Cause if I get through this whole test thing I'm going to have to let him know I'm

part of the shovel squad." Faith smirked. They might not be best friends, but Buffy was

still another slayer. She'd have to let this John guy know that if you messed with one

slayer you messed with both.

Downstairs Wesley was dealing with his own version of the shovel squad. All three

Winchester men had him backed against a wall in Sam's office. "I don't know the details

of Buffy's Cruciamentum. All I know for certain is that Mr. Giles was fired over the

matter. I've come to agree with him that it is nothing more than a barbaric exercise in

mindless cruelty. I refuse to allow my slayer to be subjected to something so terrible."

He crossed his arms and stood his ground.

"Your slayer huh?" Dean said.

"Yes, I was assigned to Faith after her first Watcher was killed. Of course the council

tried to have me as Watcher for both Faith and Buffy, but the truth is that would never

have worked even if everyone had agreed to it. Every slayer needs her own Watcher. By

trying to be both girls Watcher at once I made a huge mess of things because I wasn't

paying enough attention to Faith and too much to politics. She had been put through

some extremely trying times and needed someone who could concentrate solely on her

well being. Not be continually distracted by another slayer and council politics. I made

that perfectly clear to the council when they tried to get me to put the blame for the

situation upon Mr. Giles. I refused to do so. That led to my being fired from the council.

However, as Mr. Giles had taught me by example, being fired by the council does not

mean you have been relieved of your responsibilities to your slayer. It is her decision and

hers alone who is and who is not her Watcher. I very glad that Faith gave me another

chance to prove that I had learned my lesson."

All three men nodded. Wesley made sense. In a situation where a fifteen to sixteen year

old girl was forced to face the horrors of slaying day in and day out with no relief in sight

except death, she would desperately need someone's full attention and support in order to

survive. They had been well aware for years that on a job the slightest mistake could lead

to death for the hunter. And slayers weren't given time off in-between hunts. She hunted

every night from the time she was called until she died with no breaks. Even what would

be a serious injury for a hunter, requiring weeks or months to heal from, would heal in

hours or days for a slayer. That was one of the reasons they died so young. Buffy was the

one who had broken the pattern. She had family, including them to ease her burden.

"I'll have to have a talk with Giles about this." John said. He knew that Giles was

protective of both Buffy and the rest of Buffy's family. He was one of the very few

people, in fact, that Buffy would allow to baby-sit Dawn. That in and of itself was very

telling to John. Blood family didn't mean an automatic ok for baby-sitting as far as Buffy

was concerned. She had been polite and hadn't told Sam to his face that he couldn't watch

Dawn, but she had made sure that only those she knew were the best fighters watched

their daughter. The only exception to the rule was Joyce and then only when they were

behind the wards at her house. He still needed to know what had happened though. It

didn't sound like a good experience for Buffy. He didn't admit to himself that he really

didn't need to know, he just wanted to know more about Buffy.

Dean on the other hand was concerned about Faith. Wesley's determination that Faith not

go through with this test and his belief that it was the slayer's decision, not the Watcher's

council's which determined who served as a slayer's Watcher told him that Wes was a

good choice for their newest slayer. And Faith was theirs. She had already become a part

of their little family. Well, not so little anymore, Dean thought. Four hunters, two

witches, two Watchers, two slayers, a grandma and a little sister, not to mention the pet

vampire, did not a small family make.