DISCLAIMER: Listen up and Listen good, because I'm only saying this once! OC stuff, not mine. Buffy stuff, not mine.
SUMMARY: the OC/BtVS. Faith was taken from her family when she was ten. Now the Watchers Council is gone she's free to go back, but it's not that easy when over ten years have past and nothing's the same as when you left.
RATING: PG-13 for language.
TIMELINE: Faith is aged 21 in this fic. That makes her 16 when she first arrived in Sunnydale (around the same age Buffy was when she was called). She was 10 when she was taken from her family, so they've been without her for about eleven years. Takes place after 'the Blaze of Glory' for the OC and goes AU (alternate universe) i.e. Trey will not show up. At least not for now, but I may change my mind later.
Distant Elephants by Kiara
9- THEY FACED AMAZING ODDS…
Faith jumped forward as soon as Xander hung up the phone. "Well? What did he say?"
"Not a lot; there were a lot of pauses where I think he was cleaning his glasses though. He said that there shouldn't be any demons about because a) there's no hellmouth and/or other kind of mystical convergence near by and b) because Orange County isn't known for having a demon population."
"Well that's a big help." She snorted. That was Giles; big on the reasoning.
"Isn't it though? He reckons that maybe they've picked up on the fact that there's a slayer about where there isn't usually one and presumed it's a newbie. They think she'll be an easy kill and they can get instant fame for killing a slayer so until word gets around that it's actually you-"
"They're gonna keep on coming to Newport. Great. It would be no fun if everything went to plan just this once." Faith said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Wouldn't it though? Buffy will go down to the demon bars and spread the news that it's you as soon as she can. But she's tracking a demon."
"Great. Can't one of the other slayers do it?"
Xander shook his head. "No, Buff's the only one with enough credibility to risk going into the bars."
Faith sighed. "So we're likely to come across some more demons before word spreads."
"Shouldn't be too difficult for you to deal with though, they're expecting a new slayer who hasn't had any training. And then they get you- practically ancient and with a lot of experience getting down and dirty with vamps."
"Watch it."
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"You know, you'll have to go see them alone at some point." Xander remarked as they approached the Cohen house for the family dinner.
"I know! But you were invited. It would be rude for you not to turn up." Faith said ringing on the doorbell. She noticed he was looking at her oddly. "What?"
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much." He said softly. "I like it."
She reached up to give him a kiss. They were just getting into it, when the door opened to reveal Sandy. Faith jumped back quickly. "Hi."
Sandy's eyebrows were raised to his forehead. "Hello Faith, Xander."
He blushed, feeling like a school boy caught with his hand in the biscuit tin. "Hi."
Sandy took pity on Xander, and gave him a smile. "Well come in. Kirsten was just about to order. I hope you like Thai?"
"Mom still can't cook, huh?" Faith said with a reminiscent smile. She still remembered telling Seth that the reason the food cooked by their Mom tasted so awful was because she made it complete with 'slugs and snails and puppy-dog tails'. He'd been scared for weeks and even burst into tears when his Grandpa had insisted he finish his food that his Mommy had spent so much time over.
"Guess who's here!" Sandy said as they entered the kitchen.
Kirsten's whole face lit up when she saw her daughter and gave her a welcoming hug. Faith looking slightly uncomfortable at the unexpected contact over her shoulder, but hugged her back all the same.
Xander sat at the kitchen table watching Faith and Kirsten talk. He marvelled at how different the Faith he saw now was to the Faith that first arrived in Sunnydale. He doubted very much if this woman would tell the tales of naked crocodile wrestling that the young girl had told years ago. The change wasn't immediate- he'd noticed a difference when she returned to Sunnydale to fight the First. Most noticeably the fact that she wasn't trying to kill everyone, but also that she wasn't completely selfish and reckless like when she left.
She'd changed more in Cleveland. She was responsible (mostly) and patient(ish) with the young slayers. Now she was laughing and joking with her mother as if they'd never been apart, just talking and getting to know each other better.
"So do you have anything you'd like to do here?" Kirsten asked as she pulled a stack of plates out of one of the cupboards.
Faith looked to Xander. They hadn't really talked about what they'd do once they'd found her family. He'd brought her here to do one thing, and so far they'd spent all their time focused on that.
"I thought I might hire a car." Xander said. "I don't like having to rely on the NIWC's chauffeurs to drive us about."
"You can drive?" Kirsten blurted out.
Xander grinned. "Yep, well, better than Faith can at any rate. She forgets that not all drivers have her reactions and tends to speed towards things."
"Hey!"
He smiled at her. "What? It's true!" He noticed Kirsten was still staring at him, the question clear in her eyes. "You can ask how it happened."
Kirsten blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare. I was just curious. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." She said, although it was obvious she wanted to know.
"About a year ago we were facing the toughest opponent we'd ever faced. We walked into a trap and a lot of our girls got injured. I was helping to get them out when Caleb, one of the minions, caught me and did this."
Kirsten gasped and covered her mouth. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Stuff happens."
She nodded dumbly. It hadn't really occurred to her how dangerous Faith's work was and what Xander had been forced to sacrifice really struck her. That old saying popped into her mind, 'it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye'. She'd never been so deluded to think that slaying could actually be 'fun and games', but with the permanent injury to the young man she had come to like and respect she was forced to face up to some things.
The awkward silence was broken by the doorbell.
"That'll be the food." Kirsten said in obvious relief.
When she had left, Xander turned to Faith apologetically. He was a little shaken at having to relive one of the worst experiences of his life, of when he'd been so close to loosing everything. "Sorry, I didn't think she'd take it that badly."
"S'okay. She had to realise eventually, right?" Faith said a little panicked. In her mind she'd told her mother the worst of her life, but Kirsten had seen no evidence of the damage in those cases where as Xander's eye was on plain view.
"Right."
When Kirsten returned with the food, Faith made sure to steer the dinner conversation to more everyday matters. But there was one topic that she wasn't particularly eager to come up- education. She doubted her family would be exactly thrilled to hear that she'd managed to dodge out of high school two years before graduating.
"What about you Faith? Are you doing any college courses?"
Faith shot a quick glare at Xander's smirking face. "I'm not exactly the schooling type."
"Oh really?"
"Well I have a life-long job in slaying, so I never really saw the need to get any qualifications." Faith said diplomatically.
Xander cleared his throat loudly, prompting another glare from Faith.
Sandy eyed them both suspiciously. "And?"
"Technically I may not have finished high school." Faith admitted, glaring at Xander when her parents shared concerned looks.
Seth sent a delighted look at Ryan. "My sister- the high school drop out!"
"And why might that be?" Sandy said, well used to tuning out his son's comments.
"I moved to Sunnydale when I was sixteen and never bothered enrolling. Besides, having a life makes things complicated- you just have to lie and make excuses whenever you have to kill stuff. Are there any more dumplings?" Faith said effectively ending the conversation before the Cohen's could ask any more questions that might result in her revealing certain suspensions and expulsions that she'd rather keep to herself.
They continued eating for a while, chatting and getting to know each other better. But then things started to go wrong.
Faith looked up and out through the glass doors sharply. She turned to the man sitting next to her. "Xander."
He was immediately alert. He knew that tone of voice too well. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure. Vamps I think." She replied in a low voice, still looking out of the door.
"How many?"
Faith shrugged. "Quite a few. I'm picking up on it without even trying."
Sandy noticed his two guests whispering. "Is something wrong?"
His answer was given, not by Faith or Xander, by in the form of a rock sailing through the glass doors in the kitchen with an almighty crash, sending glass shattering all over the door.
Faith was on her feet immediately, Xander not far behind her. They stood at the door looking out into the darkness trying to see what was attacking them.
"What the hell is that all about?" Sandy said coming up behind them.
"Do you have any lights out there?" Xander asked.
Sandy flipped a switch to the left of the door and the garden was lit up showing six figures staring at the house. He gasped. "What are they?"
"Vampires." Faith said as she removed the stakes from where they were hidden on her person and put them in more easily accessible places. "Don't leave the house."
"Faith!"
Kirsten called out to her daughter as she ran out the door, but Xander caught the older woman to prevent her following.
"What are you doing? You can't leave her out there!"
Xander pushed the Cohen's back more firmly. "Faith knows what she is doing. If you go out there then you'll be killed and probably her too. If she actually needs help, then I'll be the first one out there."
Kirsten ceased in her struggling, watching as her daughter staked one of the vampires and kicked another. Sandy was watching frozen from beside the door, much like his sons who had been watching the proceedings in silent disbelief.
Xander let go of Kirsten, satisfied that she wasn't going to do anything reckless and reached for his own stake, ready to jump into the fray if Faith needed him. He winced as Faith took a particularly nasty kick and went flying backwards through the glass doors of the pool house. He held his breath, waiting for her to jump back up.
Sandy darted forward, but was stopped by Xander's arm. "She's hurt."
"She'll get up." Xander countered, and she did.
It was then Xander noticed something he hadn't seen before. There were four more vampires climbing up over the fencing at the back of the garden. He swore under his breath as he noticed that Faith was still trying to dispatch the remaining five vampires that had originally attacked the house. She was holding her own, but had yet to gain the upper hand. If the numbers against her doubled then she'd be killed for sure.
"Stay here." He commanded the Cohen's, hoping to get the fight over with before they got themselves killed. He staked the first vampire as it reached the top of the railings. One down, three to go.
The second vampire landed a few feet away from him and started running at Xander. He rolled out of the way, trying to stick out his foot as he rolled to knock the vampire off balance, but it dodged. One of the vampires joined his comrades in the fight against Faith- in theory; three vampires should be enough to stop one human. The slayer was a much bigger threat.
From where they were watching, Kirsten had hidden her face in her hands, refusing to watch the battle taking place on her lawn.
"She's fine, look." Sandy said as it became obvious to him that Faith was gaining the upper hand against the demons she was fighting.
Kirsten pulled her hands down slowly, a few of her fears subsided. "Oh my God."
She was looking at Xander who was fighting with one vampire as another approached from his blind side. There was no way he could see it coming.
As the vampire broke into a run towards Xander, he threw himself out of the way causing the second vamp to go running directly into the first. They both went to the floor, giving him a chance to stake them. He hadn't lived on the hellmouth for all those years without learning to sense when a vampire was running at him.
He looked over where Faith was fighting to see that she had dusted most of the vampires attacking her and was now down to two. They didn't stand a chance against the second-greatest slayer of all eternity and were dust within seconds.
Faith stood still, catching her breath for a moment before sauntering over to where Xander was leaning against the fence. "You okay?"
"Takes more than a few vamps to take me down. You're bleeding." He gestured to the cuts on her shoulder from where she'd been thrown through the pool house window then raised his hand to touch the cut on her cheek.
Faith shuddered at the soft contact. She'd always said that slaying made her hungry and horny, and that hadn't changed as time went on. "It'll heal."
Sandy's voice broke them out of their reverie. "Is everything okay out there?"
"Yeah." Faith yelled back, not breaking eye contact with Xander. "We're coming in now."
She reached up to brush a quick his against his lips. "Tonight." She promised.
As she walked back into the house, Faith realised Xander wasn't with her. "Aren't you coming?"
"I-" He cleared his throat and started again. "I'm just gonna stay out here for a minute; do a sweep, make sure we haven't missed anything."
She gave him a knowing look. "Yeah, of course."
She went back into the house where her family were waiting. Oh boy- this was not going to be a fun conversation.
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Next Chapter: Faith bonds with her adoptive brother and meets the Gruesome Twosome
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