Title: Her Salvation: Chapter Two.
Rating: PG-13...er, R?(For now at least.)
Summary: What happens when Faith gets whisked away to prison, only to find herself pregnant? Rather than turn her child over to the system, Faith asks a favor that might take more courage than she feels she has.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything here. Save for the storyline. All characters and the like are trademark properties of Joss Whedon, Fox, Mutant Enemy and it's affiliates. If I use lyrics then they're copyrighted to their respected owners and blah, blah, blah. Please don't sue. I'm just a poor girl. Really, I am.
Pairings: Faith/Buffy later on, Buffy/Riley at the present and of course Willow/Tara and Xander/Anya.
A/N: I know I have a lot of stories out there already, or at least a few and should stay focused on them. But like I told a friend, and she told me, it's so hard to not take an idea that pops into your head and go with it. :D
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Present; Los Angeles Womens Corrections Facility.
This was a new experience for Buffy. Being frisked was not something she liked. Walking through metal detectors, again, not something she liked. Once she was given clearing to be admitted into the prison, Buffy was handed over an ID badge and told to meet a group of others in the 'rundown' room.
Figuring it was given it's name for not being as well decorated as the previous room, and that was sarcasm at it's not so finest for her, Buffy pushed her way in between a pair of armed guards and sauntered in.
i Well, this sure as hell lacks the decor like the other gazillion rooms I've been in today. /i Yes, she was beyond pissed. Who wouldn't be when their earrings set off the detector and suddenly it's this huge conspiracy, Mainly after she told them who she was visiting. Mhmm, that earned her brownie points alrighty.
NOT!
Slipping into the room wasn't so hard. She wasn't as tall as the other visitors were. Most of them fit the description of being friends of those in here. Tattoos, chains, big muscles, mullets and mohawks, cut off sleeved flannel plaid shirts and leather coats.
Wait, what? Leather coats? It was summer. Although the nights weren't as brutal as the days, there was no need for a long coat like this guy sporting.
Leaning up on her tippy toes, Buffy spotted that leather guy wasn't just leather guy. No. He had a name and she knew that name; Angel.
I Oh, how fun. Just like old times, /i she thought as a bitter taste filled her mouth. I God, when did I get so cynical? /i
Lost in her thoughts, despite her eyes registering Angel was looking at her, Buffy stood there and let the tall vampire make his way over.
"Buffy?" He blinked in slight confusion, "What are you doing here?"
Unable to help herself, and not that she would've stopped her words had she the chance, Buffy replied, "House hunting." dryly, "Well, 'cos you know, Sunnydale isn't what it used to be. Figured LA was the way to go. Seems that's where everyone who's afraid of something strays."
That hit home for Angel. His mixed expression of happy and unsure vanished. Replaced by slight rage. The flicker of amber in his brown orbs proved such.
"If you're here to let loose on Faith for the way your life isn't going according as planned at the moment, then I suggest you go home. She doesn't need you coming here right now, Buffy." He protectively defended Faith all over again. There was starting to be a pattern, an ugly pattern for sure. "Just go." He ended delicately in plea.
"Sorry to burst your ego bubble, Angel, but Faith called me to come." A pause, "Well, okay she called Willow, but still! She asked for me to come. What's this for you? Your monthly check-up? Gee, Faith's a lucky gal to have such a fine hero looking out for her." Venom laced every syllable.
Balling his hands into fists and keeping them at his sides, Angel controlled himself from going back or striking at her. And just as he calmed, over came a guard asking if everything was alright. With both giving a nod, the pair were then escorted, with a distance between them, to the glass-communcation-table-chairs-thingy section as Buffy dubbed it.
It didn't take long before the two were fighting over the chair that was seated alone, all other occupied by now. Buffy and Angel stared one another down, not ready to make nice. Their fighting brought about a bickering similiar to two children.
"That's my seat." She claimed.
"No, you're mistaken, Buffy. That chair is mine." Angel argued.
"I don't see your name on it." Which she didn't.
"And I don't see your name on it, either." Which he didn't.
With Buffy clutching the right side of the chair's backing and Angel the left, the two pulled and tugged the metal chair back and forth.
"Gimme." She stomped his big foot.
"No!" He lightly kicked her in the shin.
"Jerk!"
"Brat!"
"Did you call me a brat?"
"Did I stutter?"
"Real mature, Angel. Maybe you should start investigating being potty trained." i Oh, god, that was lame. /i She thought with a mental kick.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" i Really, what is it supposed to mean? /i Angel contemplated.
"Nothing an infantile like you would understand!" She quipped in smirk.
"Did your new 'boyfriend' teach you that word?"
"Don't you dare bring Riley into this!"
So oblivious were the two, that they hadn't noticed anyone staring at them. Mainly Faith. Who was actually admiring the show until Riley was brought up. That made the brunette wince inwardly.
"Um, guys?" The plumped faced younger girl piped up from behind the glass speaker.
At the sound of the familiar voice, each turned to face her. Buffy in the meantime took the seat in sneak.
"Guy. Girl." Buffy indicated the differences between herself and Angel. "It hasn't been that long an incarceration," I God knows, /i "for you to forget genders." Yeah, so? She was being a bitch. Faith had three years to be the ruler of Bitchonia. Time for a new ruler.
"I was generalizing, B. That's all." Faith murmured as eyes darted to Angel. "Hey big guy." For him, she smiled. And for her, he returned the sentiment.
"How you feeling?" The concern in his tone made Buffy jealous. Only because for a long time Buffy knew she'd been the one in Angel's shoes and everytime she reached out a hand, she found herself recoiling it empty. Faith always refusing her protection.
"Okay I guess." Faith for once didn't choose to go with five by five. Because that's not how she felt. She didn't feel perfect. She felt as if her world had been ripped in two and at any moment, Buffy would rip it further down the line. "I didn't think ya were comin' today. Issit okay if I talk to B alone for a bit?" She didn't need to ask twice.Angel of course nodded and let the guards at the door know that Faith wanted one on one sessions and not joined.
Crossing her legs at the ankles, Buffy reached forward and pulled the mic closer to her, "Let's just get to the poiint, Faith. Why'd you call me here?"
"I need to ask a favor from you." That got a laugh from the blonde. An amused and cold laugh.
"That's rich. 'Cos last time I did you a favor, Faith, I ended up getting stabbed in the back." Buffy's laughter died out and her eyes blazed a deep emerald. Faith had the audacity to call her and ask her to come for a favor? Somethings never changed.
"I know, and I'm never going to stop being sorry f'it, B. It's why I'm in here." There was a void in the way Faith wrapped her words around one another. But the older of the girl's didn't care.
"No, you're in here for killing someone. Remember?" When Faith didn't respond verbally, Buffy went on, "You're in here for torturing people. You're in here because you had no where else to run. You were all out of hands to take and games to play!" Buffy's voice grew louder at the end, her hands had slammed in tap against the top of the counter before her. Thankfully it hadn't been the glass or she'd have imagined it would have cracked. Then Faith would have had her escape, and Buffy an accomplice.
"I know! I know!" Faith agreed whole heartedly, "I can't change the past. Not in anyway, but I can change the future, or at least I'd like to think so."
Buffy could hear the edge to her tone, the nervousness and for once, desperation in the Boston accent. Why though? Why now? Why all of a sudden...
"I was pregnant." Faith knew that if she didn't say it now, chances were that Buffy would leave without hearing her out.
"I'm sorry, you were what?" There was no way she heard right. Uh uh. Faith pregnant? She had to have hearing issues at the time being.
"I was pregnant, B. I found out when I got in here. Trust me, it took me by surprise, too. But I was. I had my son." Now Faith spoke with affectionate pride.
"Where is he?" Dumb question, Buffy knew. But it came out before her brain could register what her lips were getting out.
"With a foster fam. I don't want him in the system, B. It's why I asked you here." Visibly Faith scooted back in her seat, inch by inch. Somewhat preparing herself for the inevitable doom and gloom.
"So, you want me to get him out of the system?" The blonde was not comprehending this as well as she should be.
"Yeah." Seeing that the woman she betrayed more than anyone else in her life was picking at the pieces to get it to fit as a finished puzzle, Faith let her know full out. "I want you to take him."
"Take him where?" Yup, total blonde moment in the flesh for Buffy Anne Summers. Nothing at all uncommon.
Keeping with her patience, which oddly enough Faith had more and more of these days, she answered, "Back to Sunnydale. For you to raise Nataniel." i Wait for it... wait for it, /i Her inner doubt reminded her that there was noway Buffy would ever agree.
From her point of view, Faith's that is, it looked as if Buffy's head exploded inside and all her thoughts meshed as one in a big o'l gooey pile of mush. Maybe this was a bad, bad idea.
-TBC (I know there was a lot of Angel and Buffy action, but I figured Faith would have definitely called him to come see her, and that fate would find a joke in all this and let Buffy and him run into one another. But alas, will Buffy accept the proposal? Stay tuned to find out. o)
