A/N: Okay, so here's chapter six. Took me a while but it's finally here. The problem or I guess the complication with this fic is that it's, at least for me, a lot more serious than the other fics. I want to be sure I have the characters right, so I do a lot of thinking before I write and once I write I do a lot of rewriting. The result is further spaced updates but on the bright side, the fic has a lot more cannon-y and realistic feel to it. Thanks to jadelouise, No Named Angel, Love-Of-The-Draconis, RedQueen, WhiteTwitch, Laura , Davide Piccinini, and Deamondeathstone for reviewing. Your reviews mean the world to me! And moving on from that bit of sappiness, go read chapter six! And review!
Previously:
"We overheard her talking to her son. She wants to ask you to go back with them. To England." Buffy said.
And that was probably the biggest shock of the day. "What?" Faith practically screeched.
………
"I don't think so," Faith said.
That's when Buffy just about lost it. "I don't care what you think. This is your way out and it's mine."
………
Faith stood up. "You threatening me, B?" she asked stepping close until they were nose to nose.
"You bet your ass." Buffy shot back. "I want you out. I don't care if it's with Narcissa or in handcuffs but I want you out. How is your choice."
"Not much of choice," Faith muttered before heading over to where they were all standing.
………
"Faith," Narcissa said. "I have something I'd like to ask you………. How would you like to come and stay with us, for a while"
………
Faith took a deep breath. "Why not?" she said.
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CH. 6: Meet the Padfoot, er Parent
"Finally," Buffy moaned heaving herself on the couch the minute she, Willow, Xander entered Giles' apartment. "That has got to be the longest day and night that I've had in a long time."
"I know what you mean," Xander agreed sitting down next to her. "I feel like we should be breaking out the chips and beer."
"But we don't drink beer, Xan," Willow said, taking the armchair.
"I beg to differ," Xander said, affronted. "I drink beer."
"Uh no you don't," Willow and Buffy said at the same time then grinned at each other in the way best friends do when they catch themselves doing something best friend-y. If Faith had been there, she would've called nauseating. But to their obvious relief and Xander's party mood, Faith was long gone as of about an hour ago. The only one who wasn't happy about that was Spike who had voluntarily locked himself in the bathroom so he could sulk at the loss of his only friend in this hellhole.
"I do too drink beer!" Xander reiterated.
Willow merely gave him her patented Don't Try to Fool Me, look.
"Well, I've drank beer before," he amended.
Buffy snorted. Although she'd closed her eyes she was closely following the conversation. "You drank beer once, Xan. Once in our junior year. And after that you threw it all up on Harmony."
"Which by the way, was an extremely nice touch," Willow added. "It got you dubbed the biggest loser around school for a while but was satisfying to watch while it lasted."
"Never happened," Xander denied, folding his arms.
"Are you doing that selective memory thing, Xan?" Willow asked. "Cause that's usually my line of work and I'm not sure I appreciate you stealing it."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he insisted.
"That's it," Buffy said, cracking open an eye. "Bring out the 'Album', Willow."
Xander gasped. "That's a very cruel and unnecessary tactic." He said.
"I think it's necessary," Willow put in. "Cruel, but necessary."
"Then you admit you never drank beer expect for that time in junior year when you threw up all over Harmony?" Buffy pushed.
Xander winced. "Don't ever say that sentence again. I prefer to believe that I live in an alternate reality where that and a long list of embarrassing things I've done never happened. And in which I'm dating Jessica Alba."
Willow wrinkled her nose. "You could do better than that. In your make- believe alternate reality at least."
"Fine. I'm dating Angelina Jolie and I drive a Lamborghini." He added.
"Ooh, Lamborghini," Willow said, excited. "Do I get to ride in it?"
"Sure," Xander said after a moment's hesitation. The moment's hesitation was due to the fact that he'd had to first remember what she was asking since he'd been caught up in a typical teenage boy with raging hormones fantasy that included Angelina and him in the backseat of the Lamborghini and just for the record, they weren't talking.
Of course Willow took the hesitation to mean something completely else. "I knew it," she accused him, her excitement deflating. "You've totally ditched me in your fantasy haven't you? I mean, now that you're dating Angelina Jolie, there's no need for poor awkward red headed Willow, is there?"
"NO," Xander said, taken aback.
"I don't believe you," Willow said loftily. "But it doesn't matter cause now you can't be a part of my make-believe alternate reality."
Buffy grinned as she let the sounds of their arguments wash over her. Relax her, calm her down after today's events. She wasn't worried, Xander would find a way to soothe over Willow's hurt feelings. That's the way it always was. Their bantering, their arguing, it was their norm. Sitting around or in her case lying around, this is what they did, this was their normal. The three of them, the heart of the scoobies. Others might come and go but Willow and Xander and her, they were there for keeps. The thought brought a lingering smile to Buffy's lips.
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If that wasn't a sight, then Angel didn't know what was. Seeing Buffy lying down on the couch, truly relaxed, smiling at a thought only she was privy to eased an ache in his lonely heart, one that only she could ease. At the same time it brought on another kind of ache, this one so deep it was almost physical. He wanted to be the reason why she looked like that, all soft and lax, as if the demons of this earth couldn't touch her. He wanted to be able to share her smiles and the thoughts that were responsible for them. But until she said the word, that wasn't going to happen.
Straightening from where he was leaning against the door way, he made his way over to her. Before he'd even taken two steps, her eyes flew open and instinctively sought him out. It never failed to amaze him how she could do that, immediately pick him out whenever he was in the same general area as she was. But then it shouldn't since it was the same for him. He offered a small smile, one that he reserved especially for her. For a second, still caught up in her own thoughts, she smiled back; a lazy, inviting kind of smile that nearly made his heart stop. Of course since he was dead, it was only hypothetical but it still gave him a jolt. And then she seemed to remember exactly everything that had happened between them yesterday and in the past and the smile dropped off her face and was replaced with a cold glare as she stood up.
"What," she began coldly. "Are you doing here?" Not even waiting for him to answer she asked another question, "How'd you get in here? We're the only ones home and nobody opened the door for you and I sincerely doubt that Giles would give you a key."
Well that hurt. Not what she was saying, since it was pretty much true but that she'd throw it in his face. On purpose. With the intent of hurting him. He never, in a million years, would've expected that from her. What do you expect you bloody wanker? said an inner voice that sounded suspiciously like Spike. You keep breaking her heart, keep walking out on her. Do you think she's just going to take it laying down?
Keeping his face and voice impassive, he answered with a shrug, "I knocked. No one answered. I could hear you guys in here. So I let myself in."
"Let yourself in?" She repeated coolly. Xander and Willow watched them from the sidelines, more then content to not get involved.
"I picked up a couple tricks over the centuries," he replied just as coolly, now the one deliberately putting space between them by reminding them of their differences. Despite understanding her reasons for wanting to hurt him, his first instinct was still to hurt back.
Buffy's eyes narrowed, having caught what was unsaid. "Well, I'm pretty sure that these 'tricks' were just as illegal-not wrong- back then as they are now."
"My, my," he said in a sneer worthy of Angelus. That seemed to be Willow and Xander's cue to leave. "Aren't you the Queen of morality?"
"Compared to you, I am!" She shot back.
And wasn't that the sad, sad truth? Angel wondered as all his anger deflated. Compared to him she was an angel, ironic puns aside. A beautiful innocent angel that was beyond out of his league; he should've walked away the first time Whistler had shown him Buffy, then he wouldn't even be having in this conversation in this first place. And you'd be back living in filth infested holes surviving off rats, the Spike like voice taunted, and wouldn't that just be fun?
Tried of the voice in his the head (he thought it might be his conscience) that popped up whenever he was around Buffy, tired of fighting with said Buffy and just plain tired, he decided to leave. "I think I'm going to head out now," he said tonelessly. "Tell Giles I stopped by and need to talk to him."
That quickly took all the fight out of Buffy too and left her standing in the living room, uncertain what to do.
He was nearly at the door when he heard her say in a small voice, "Don't go."
He paused, waited.
She took a deep breath. "Please?" she asked her voice wobbling a bit. It was really annoying how he could make her emotions turn upside down, she thought, as she held back a sniffle. First happiness, pure undulated joy that resulted just from seeing him smile in that special way he had at her, then anger and an almost unstoppable need to hurt him, as all the things he'd done in the past came rushing back. Then uncertainty and pain, for him, at hearing such utter defeat and dejection in his voice, knowing that she'd pushed him there. Finally, an emptiness in her soul that almost swallowed her whole at the thought of him walking away from her. Again. The tears were just a result of all the jumbled emotions and confusion she was feeling. Once again she was hit with another flash of annoyance at the fact that he'd been in the room for less then two minutes and he'd already ruined her happy mood at seeing the last of Faith and had turned her into a weeping mess. Nonetheless, that didn't stop her from holding out her arms towards him and saying, aware it was more like begging, "Stay with me? Okay?"
She didn't have to ask him twice. He strode over to her and pulled her tight to him. Wrapping her arms around him, Buffy gave a shaky sigh as she rested her head on his shoulder. She didn't apologize for what she said, for hurting him because she already knew it was forgiven. It made her feel mean and spiteful for holding onto her hurt but she wasn't ready to relinquish that, not yet. "I hate you for leaving me, you know that?" she said, her voice muffled against his shoulder.
"I know."
Buffy took a deep breath and gathered the courage she needed to say the next part, "But I still love you, too. And-and," she swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I don't know what that means. Where it puts us. Everything is all twisted and muddled and it's confusing and – it hurts my head just to think about it all. God what a mess." She finished miserably.
"I know," he repeated cradling her head with one hand and drawing soothing circles on her back with the other. "I know exactly what you're feeling because I've been there before, I'm there now. Except for the hating you part, I don't think I could ever hate you, no matter what happened."
Buffy was silent, then, "I don't really hate you."
"Yeah?" Angel said, a grin splitting his face.
Buffy gave another little sniff. "You don't have to sound so happy about it. It doesn't mean you're even close to being forgiven."
"But it means there's a chance that you might forgive me. Somewhere in the near future," he added.
"Maybe," Buffy said evasively. Seeing the look he was giving her, she revised that. "Probably. Yes. Now don't get all excited, just because I agree to forgive you sometime in the near future, doesn't mean anything has changed between us."
"Do you actually believe that?"
"No," Buffy half said, half moaned burying her face in his shoulder once again. "You are absolutely horrible to my resolve. You're like a tempting, beautifully decorated sinful seven layer chocolate cake and I'm somebody who's decided to go on a diet. But of course nothing, especially not willpower, stands in the way of chocolate cake."
"Thanks, I think," Angel said.
Buffy looked up so she could glare at him. "That was not a compliment, mister!" she scolded. "It was more of a complaint. I don't need you in my life right now. You complicate things, and everybody knows I have too many complications what with mom and dad fighting again about who's supposed to paying for college, and just attending said college, not to mention studying and all that stuff so I can actually pass my classes. And I still haven't got to the Slayer stuff yet. There's the basic slaying, then dealing with the Initiative, who have taken to experimenting around with demons and vampires, and Spike, who I still don't have any idea what I'm going to do with. And of course there's Riley-wait, I forgot, Faith took care of that." She said the last part bitterly, more annoyed that she'd lost yet another reason to stay away from Angel then the fact she'd been cheated on by her sort of boyfriend. Of course having cheated on him too, it was understandable that it didn't bug her too much. Now the fact that it was with Faith, that bugged her the hell out of her. Logically she couldn't blame Faith because, a) she hadn't known who he was and b) Buffy got her reasoning. But it was still another thing that Faith had managed to take away from her and yeah, that bugged her.
"Who's Riley?" Angel asked, rousing her from her thoughts.
"Riley?" Buffy repeated, not sure what she should tell him. He'd probably figured from her tone that there was a story there. Deciding that she'd rather not have him jump to conclusions and go grr on her, she told him the truth. "This guy I was semi-dating. He in the army, goes to the same college and works with the Initiative."
"Was dating?" Angel asked carefully.
Buffy nodded. "Was, as in the past tense.'' She clarified.
"And how'd that happen?"
"Faith," Buffy said simply with a shrug.
"Faith?" Angel repeated sort of getting it but not wanting to jump to conclusions.
"Some guys from the Watcher's Council came after Faith today. We fought them, kicked their asses. And I swear the Initiative must have cameras all over Sunnydale cause less then ten minutes later they showed up. Riley being one of them. Long story short, we had one of those awkward love triangle moments when it became obvious that he and Faith knew each other. Now, Faith had no clue that I was going out with him, not that I think it would've made a difference, so she readily divulged the fact that they'd spent yesterday night getting to know each other. Between the sheets. And everything pretty much went downhill from that." Buffy ended. After punching Riley, mostly because the situation demanded it, she'd all but kicked Faith and her newfound relatives out of Sunnydale only giving her time to get her things, which actually took longer that it was supposed to, since they discovered that Faith still had access to the apartment the Mayor had given her and all of the many things in it. Since Faith insisted that she wasn't planning on ever coming back to Sunnydale and that did Buffy's heart much good, she'd stood by albeit grudgingly while Faith packed up her belongings. And then Faith had popped in Giles' apartment to say bye to Spike and then they'd headed over to the main bookstore where they'd disappeared through the fireplace using some weird technique that included green powder. Having seen many strange things in her career as a Slayer, Buffy accepted it with a mere blink of an eye.
"I never thought I'd see the day, I'd be thanking Faith for something," Angel said. "But I'm damn thankful that she slept with that asshole."
"You're glad I got cheated on?" Buffy asked with a pout.
"Oh no," Angel chided playfully. "I'm not going to get caught in that trap. And don't kill me for saying this but you don't look too devastated over the whole cheating thing. Course that's probably cause you were-"
Knowing where he was going with that, Buffy smacked him on the arm. "Don't finish that sentence." She warned.
Angel grinned.
Buffy sighed. "It wouldn't have lasted anyway," she said replying to his earlier comment. "Riley and me. He just wasn't-" she stopped as she realized what she had been guilelessly about to say. He just wasn't you. And feeling stupid for not seeing it before, Buffy realized that's why none of the relationships she'd tried to have after breaking up with Angel had worked. They guys she dated, they just weren't Angel and for better or worse, the only thing her heart wanted was Angel. Like she'd told him, she didn't need him but that didn't stop her from wanting him.
"What?" Angel asked. "He just wasn't what?"
Seeing the intense look on his face Buffy chose to refrain from enlightening him with her little epiphany. She'd pretty much laid all her cards on the table but she wasn't ready to give him this. "Uh, he just wasn't right for me. I think we both knew that. We would've acknowledged it soon, Faith just sort of sped that all up."
"And for that she has my gratitude," Angel said.
Buffy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But I'm still glad she's out of my hair," she said snuggling back into Angel's embrace. "From now on she's the problem of one Sirius Black. And of course Narcissa. There's also Draco but the point is I don't have to be the one who deals with her anymore." She tried to get even closer to Angel and it was then she realized that he'd gone stiffer than a board. "Angel what's wrong?"
"Please, please, please tell me that there's something wrong with my hearing and that I didn't just hear you say Sirius Black. Or Narcissa or Draco." Angel said carefully deciding it would be less productive if he completely lost it as he wanted too.
"No you heard me," Buffy said, puzzled.
Screw productiveness, Angel thought as he wrenched himself away from Buffy and let out a stream of curses.
"Angel?" Buffy questioned.
"Buffy do you have any idea who Sirius Black is?" he asked.
Buffy smiled nervously. "I'm assuming from the look on your face that I should but the answer is still no. Though now that you mention it the name sounds familiar."
Angel cursed again, this time in Gaelic since he'd run out of all the good ones in English.
Considering the fact that Angel had switched to cursing in a different language, Buffy realized that something was very wrong.
Angel abruptly stopped cursing and turned to look at Buffy. "Sirius Black? Order of the Phoenix? Wizarding War? Now does it ring a bell?"
"Ohhh, That Sirius Black." Buffy said as understanding dawned. "Well that's one for the list of weird twists of fate but I still don't see why this is such a problem. I mean, you knew that she was going to meet her family from the wizarding world-"
"I thought we were talking about some nice normal American wizarding family!" Angel interrupted. "It never crossed my mind that Faith might originally be English, let alone Sirius Black's daughter! She is his daughter isn't she?" There was so much similarity between the two, especially in looks, and that fact alone made him shake his head for not seeing it before. Of course, Buffy had mentioned Narcissa so she could be Sirius's niece through her, Angel thought, though he doubted it.
"Yeah, she's his daughter." Buffy assured him. "But still not seeing problem."
"She's Faith! She's a loose cannon. At the same time she's one heck of a valuable loose cannon, seeing as how she's the Slayer and a witch from one of the most powerful wizarding families."
"Well, weren't you guys in the Order looking for a Slayer? It sounds like you just hit the jackpot." Buffy said.
"They wanted you, not Faith. Faith was never even an option."
"Look I know Faith is doing the whole ex-Slayer routine right now but it's not bound to last. Soon or later the Slayer in her is going to get restless. And knowing Faith I'm betting on sooner. If you guys take advantage of that, you get a pretty powerful ally. You won't even need me."
"What's the guarantee that Faith won't go to Voldemort's side?" Angel asked, getting to the heart of the problem. "As of now, or sources tell us that he doesn't know or isn't interested in trying to get a Slayer on his side. But the minute he realizes the possibility of her joining Dumbledore's side he'll do everything in his power to get her. How does anybody know that she won't go over to the other side? She's done it before."
"And you know more than most people her reasons for doing that. She honestly felt like she didn't have another choice, that it was her only way out. And she covered it all up with her 'I'm bad' act." Buffy said.
"I know that," Angel agreed. "But at the same I know how easy it is to get in so deep you literally don't have a way out. I know how seductive, for lack of a better word, being bad can be. The power of it all and the knowledge that you have that power, it's like a drug. Ignore the guilt and the shame that comes with it long enough and you're hooked. I don't think Faith is strong enough to go through that, at least not at this moment."
"Well, I don't know how to put this but I don't think there's anything you can do about that." Buffy replied.
"No, but the least I can do is give the Order a head's up." Angel said grimly. "Knowing Faith they're going to need one."
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Narcissa glanced up at the clock in the kitchen impatiently for what had to be the twentieth time that afternoon.
"Of all the days," she muttered. She couldn't decide whether to be more mad or worried. Despite the fact that Sirius's name had been cleared for months now (he'd even become a sort of celebrity in the wizarding world), he rarely ventured out of his house which made his absence when he knew that there was a good chance Narcissa would be able to convince Faith to come with her, all the more unexpected. They'd been back for a good hour now and he was still nowhere to be found. Also for the twentieth the time that afternoon, Narcissa glanced down at the note Sirius had left, not that it was helpful in the least. In his messy handwriting he'd scrawled Went to see Dumbledore. Will be back soon.
"Soon, he says," she muttered again.
"Talking to yourself again, Ciss?" Sirius said cheerfully coming up behind her. "That's not very healthy you know."
Narcissa jumped, startled by the sudden presence of her cousin. "Don't do that!" she said.
"What? Sneak up behind you?" Sirius said with a grin. "But you're so fun to scare."
Going on her tiptoes, Narcissa put a hand to Sirius's forehead. "You don't have a fever." She said.
Sirius swatted at her hand. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Trying to figure out why all of the sudden you're acting like you're twelve." Narcissa answered.
Sirius shrugged. "Must be a side affect of the cheering charm Remus preformed on me," he said grinning.
"Cheering charm? Remus?" Narcissa shook her head. "I thought you went to see Dumbledore."
Sirius rocked back on his heels. "I did. See, right after you guys left, I remembered the Fidelius Charm on the house and how I'd completely forgotten to talk to Dumbledore about it. So I went to him and he fixed it so Faith would be able to enter the house like he did for Draco. Of course, that got us talking about Faith and my newfound fatherhood, and you know how just talking about that subject turns me into a complete nervous wreck. Luckily Remus was stopping by to give Dumbledore something or the other and he took pity on me and did a cheering charm. But judging from the snitches flying around in my stomach, it's starting to fade. "
"Good," Narcissa said. "I doubt you want to be jumping up and down and bouncing off the walls like a child when you meet your daughter. Which would be now."
"Now?" Sirius repeated suddenly looking ill.
"Now." Narcissa confirmed. "It was supposed to be an hour ago but-"
"She's here?" Sirius asked although he already knew the answer to that question.
"Upstairs. Probably unpacking. Since I was too busy trying to decipher where you went, I told Draco to give her a tour of the house and let her pick on of the unoccupied bedrooms on the second floor."
Sirius nodded, though he didn't seem to have heard a word she said. "What's she like?" he asked at last.
That question brought reminiscent tears to Narcissa's eyes. "You," she said swallowing past the lump in her throat. "Oh Sirius, she's exactly like you when you were a teenager. The whole 'devil may care' attitude, the somewhat perverse sense of humor, even the rebellion against authority figures. She has a chip on her shoulder- I don't know why- and judging from what I saw she has the same habit of getting into trouble that you were famous for. I guess it's genetic along with the classic Black looks. And she has those too, in spades."
Sirius smiled a bit uncertainly as he listened to Narcissa describe his daughter. His daughter, the words still threw him for a loop. He'd been a lot worried about how Faith would be like, but from what Narcissa said apparently that had been for naught. He'd worried about whether they'd be able to find anything in common, whether she'd like him or and though he hated to admit it whether he'd like her. There had never been any doubt about whether he'd love her or not; he loved her the minute he knew she existed, simply for being a part of him, a part of something he created. But he knew from experience that it was possible to love someone and to not like them. "Is she anything like Lily?" he asked.
Narcissa shook her head. "No," she said softly, sadly. She would've loved to see some of her late best friend in her daughter but maybe it just wasn't meant to be. "Not that I've seen but you never know. There's also something else-"
At that moment, Faith came pounding down the stairs. "Hey Narcissa, do you think there's someplace around here I can order takeout from?" she called. "Preferably Chinese. I don't know but something about the whole floo powder experience is making me crave-" What she was craving nobody found out and Faith promptly forgot as she came into the kitchen and got her first good look at the man who was her father.
"I'll give you two some space," Narcissa said quietly. Walking past Sirius she gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze though she doubt he noticed seeing how engrossed he was in Faith.
They studied each other for what seemed like an eternity, each lost in their own thoughts.
Holy crack a monkey. That was the first thought that came to Faith's mind as she gawked at the man in front of her. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a strong build. She glanced at his face and was so startled that she took two giant steps back.
"Well that just throws the need for genetic testing and all that shit out the window," she muttered shakily taking in his shaggy black hair, his dark eyes, the olive complexion, everything about his face that reminded her so much of her own.
"I beg your pardon?" Sirius said.
Faith gestured futilely. "I thought, even after everything, the locket, I thought maybe this was still just some kind of mix-up, but" she said with a helpless shrug. "You're standing right here in front of me and you have my face."
Sirius smiled crookedly. "Well actually it's the other way around." He said.
"Huh?"
"I'm the original, you're the carbon copy so you have my face," he explained all the while grinning.
Un-freakin-believable! Here they were meeting for the first time, something that was supposed to be deep and meaningful and all those other sappy words and he was cracking a joke? Remind you of someone? Her conscience nagged. Faith fought a wry grin of her own as she realized that if he hadn't broken the moment with a joke, she ultimately would've. It was that little fact that finally made it click that this man was indeed her father.
Sirius let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding when he saw her smile. "So you're Faith," he said inanely.
"So you're Sirius," she returned careful to avoid using the term father.
They had an uncomfortable moment of silence.
"So-" Sirius began just to end the silence.
"Look-" Faith said at the same time.
They both stopped.
"You go first," they said at the same time.
"No, you go first," Faith said.
Sirius shook his head. "No you, I insist."
It was Faith's turn to shake her head. she didn't want to say anything until she heard what she had to say. Trying to find a way to put it so he wouldn't refuse, she said "For the sake of respecting your elders and all that cra-stuff, you should go first."
And if she thought a show of politeness (or in Faith's case an attempt at politeness, she really wasn't too good with things like that) would make Sirius Black readily agree then she was way off the mark. "What? Are you suggesting that I'm old?" Sirius challenged, with a glint in his eyes.
Faith couldn't help it; she began to laugh. Not because anything was really funny and definitely not because this meeting with Sirius was going the way that she'd thought it would but because she'd just realized the sheer strangeness and absurdity of the whole situation. For pretty much the same reason, Sirius joined in.
"This is weird, isn't it?" Sirius asked when they had both quieted down.
"So weird," Faith readily admitted.
"I must say, I never thought I'd find myself in such a predicament. You know, trying to come up with something to say to your grown up daughter whom you're meeting for the first time. Well, not until I found out about you," he corrected himself. "Then I thought about it a lot."
"How long ago was that?" Faith asked before she could stop herself.
"A couple of months ago. This past winter," he answered
"And what?" Faith said, not even trying to stop the sarcasm that was creeping into her voice. "You decided to put off meeting me until you figured something out?"
"No," Sirius said gently. "Finding you took a long time."
"Even with all your magic?" Faith asked skeptically.
Sirius frowned. "Surprisingly, yes. For some reason, we weren't able to track you magically. It was almost as if you had cloaked yourself."
"Cloaked myself?"
Abruptly Sirius remembered that she'd just been introduced the wizarding world and didn't have that much knowledge about such things. "It means that you hid your essence. That's what a wizard or witch looks for when they're trying to find somebody. Of course, there are a lot of people out there who don't want to be found so they charm themselves to hide their essence. Their essence doesn't disappear it just changes. Sort of like somebody wearing a cloak to keep themselves from being recognized, hence the term."
To her utmost surprise, Faith actually understood what he was saying what's more she found it intriguing. Maybe this whole witch thing isn't so bad, she thought to herself. Out loud, she mused, "It must be a part of the whole Slayer deal."
"S-Slayer deal?" Sirius asked.
Faith turned to look at him. "Narcissa didn't tell you that I'm a Slayer?"
"No, she most certainly did not." Sirius said stoutly when he finally recovered his ability to speak. "You're the Slayer?"
"A Slayer," Faith said. "There' another Slayer. The gist of that is she died so another Slayer was called but by that time she had been brought back to life. The Slayer that was called died recently and I was called."
Sirius nodded to show he understood. Like Narcissa had told Faith earlier, the wizarding world was no stranger to the Slayer so he wasn't too thrown off guard. However, he was a little disturbed about the circumstances of things. Just recently, The Order had been thinking about getting the Slayer involved in the war against Voldemort. He'd been one of the people who'd pushed for it. Now as fate would have it, his daughter whom he'd barely just met turned out to be the Slayer or at least one of them. He wasn't too sure exactly what that meant and made up his mind to talk to Dumbledore about this as soon as possible. Outside of Narcissa, Andromeda and Remus, he was the only other person who knew about Faith's existence. A fact that would change for sure if she were to get involved in the Wizarding War. He was brought of his musings as he heard Faith call his name.
"I'm sorry what did you say?" he asked.
"Umm, the thing is, I just," Faith mumbled looking everywhere but at his face. "Thankyouforlettingmestayhere." She rushed.
Having not have been expecting that, Sirius was at loss for words. What exactly, he wondered, did one say to that? Do? His first impulse was to hug her, pull her close to him. She looked so discomfited, so lonely, so young that he felt this overwhelming need to comfort her, to reassure her. So this is what it feels like to be a parent, he thought in amazement. "You don't have to thank me. This is your home," he finally settled for, patting her hand.
And just like that the young venerable woman was gone. "Okay, I don't want seem rude or anything, cos I'm really grateful that you're letting me crash at your place but we got to get one thing straight," she said pulling her hand away. "I'm big girl, I'm not looking for somebody to take care of me. I'm not waiting for you to make up for all the past birthdays and Christmases and all that stuff that you weren't there for. I don't need you to fix my boo-boos, or kiss me goodnight or tuck me in or any of the shit. You're my father," it took all she had to force the word out, "there's no denying that, but I think we'll get along much better if you realize that I rather we don't do the whole father/daughter relationship thing."
Sirius didn't believe a word she was saying but now was not the time to point that out. Instead he said, "Well, that's relief because to be completely honest, I don't know the first thing about being a father," he said grinning broadly.
She looked bewildered by that at first then little by little she started to grin back.
It wasn't a declaration of love and undying devotion, but it was a start.
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A/N: I'm pretty sure that did not go how a lot of people where expecting the whole Sirius/Faith meeting to go but I felt like it was necessary. Then there's the fact that I spent a lot more time back with the scoobies then with the wizarding world. The reason for this is that since we're not going to be seeing from them for a while I felt like I needed some kind of closure, especially with Buffy and Angel. But don't think for a second that we've heard the last of them or their problems! Getting back to Faith and her newfound family, just because Sirius feels like they are making headway doesn't guarantee that everything will be steady sailing from now on, far from it. And it'll only get more complicated when Harry's finally introduced to his big sister (I foresee a huge temper tantrum that involves the breakage of things, on both sides). I can hardly wait! Review and tell me what you think and/or what you'd like to see in the fic and I'll see what I can do! Take care.
-TDL
