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.
Thanks to Jess a.k.a. PrimitivePixx who's helping me with the rest of this fic.
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A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates. I've had a birth, a death and a holiday in the last month so it's kinda manic. The next one may not be that much quicker as it's that lovely exam season. Sorry!
Distant Elephants by Kiara
11- UNTIL THEY WON THEIR WAR.
"Are you going to be nice?" Xander asked as he and Faith waited at the airport for their friends.
"You know me, I'm always nice." Faith muttered. She knew she was being irrational; back up was part of the slaying gig now and it wasn't as if she hated Angel, Buffy and the rest of the slayers. But this was a crazy point in her life and her irritation at Xander was just about the only thing she could control right now.
"It's my fault they're here, don't be mad at them."
She rolled her eyes as people started spilling out the gates. "Whatever."
Xander craned his neck about, looking for a sign of Buffy or either of the slayers that may have gone with her. "She's too damn short."
"There's Vi and Shannon and presumably Angel inside the coffin box their wheeling, she'll be with them. Look who else is with them." Faith said spotting a fourth person with the group.
"She's got Dawn with her?"
Faith smirked. "I wonder what she's done now."
It was a standing joke amongst the Scoobies about how Buffy only allowed Dawn to come on missions when she'd done something wrong and didn't feel she could be left alone. Of course it wasn't all that of an effective punishment as the youngest Summers much preferred to be in the thick of the action rather than sitting at home, but Buffy hadn't really caught on to that yet.
Buffy approached the group with a smile. "Hey guys, how's it going?"
"Fine." Xander said returning the hug Buffy gave him and then moving onto Dawn. "Good to see you Dawnie. What did you do?"
Dawn smiled and shifted her bag on her shoulder so that it partially blocked Buffy from her sight. If she wasn't there then maybe she wouldn't get another lecture. "I just missed curfew a little bit."
"By two hours! And for the third time in a row!" Buffy spluttered.
"Buffy, I'm seventeen. You can't expect me to come home at nine thirty forever."
"Why, why do you always pick the times when I'm about to go away to stage a little teenage rebellion? You have the worst timing."
Faith smirked again. "I can't imagine."
Shannon let go of the trolley she and Vi were pushing Angel on and greeted Faith with a smile. She had always gotten on well with the older slayer, she (and Willow) had reassured her and taken her to the hospital when she first arrived in Sunnydale injured.
"Shannon!" Vi grabbed onto the coffin box as it lurched to the side, only her slayer strength prevented Angel from falling.
"Oops, sorry." She grinned sheepishly at the others as they tried to stifle their laughter at the indignant muttering coming from inside the box.
Buffy turned to her fellow slayer and gave her a quick hug. "Are you okay?"
"Five by five as always."
Buffy eyed her worried. "If you need someone to punch I'm here. And I promise not to beat you too badly."
"You wish. And the vampires kind of took care of the hit reflex."
"Right, vampires. Why are they here again?"
"My theory, a few turned up assuming there was a new slayer in town and word got around it was Faith on her own. It seems more organised now, I think someone's targeting her. It would be best if we raided tonight before they know back up's arrived. " Xander finished.
Faith looked at him. Sometimes she forgot he was a watcher, and a pretty good one at that.
"Great, tonight we lock Dawn in the room and go hunting." Buffy said, ignoring the grunt that came from Angel's box as she jolted it.
"Oh faboo." Dawn muttered sarcastically. She was ignored.
"Sounds good. Nothing like a little blood and violence before bedtime. Hey Angel, how was the flight?" Judging by the growl that came from the box, Faith guessed not all that great. She turned to Xander and lowered her voice slightly. "I've just got to phone my mom and dad, tell them we won't be coming around tonight."
Faith hurried off and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, recalling a number from its memory. "Hi, it's Faith…We've just picked them up from the airport…They're fine."
"That's good." Kirsten said on the end of the phone. "Are you coming for dinner tonight?"
"That's what I was calling about actually. Xander thinks we should hunt tonight."
"Xander thinks?"
"Well he's kind of running the show now, I told you he was a watcher."
Kirsten forced herself not to panic. "Okay. How about this afternoon? We'd like to see you. And your friends, we'd love to meet them."
Faith hesitated a minute. Did she really want her family to meet Angel, Buffy, Dawn, Shannon and Vi? "I don't know…"
"Sandy and I would love to meet them." Kirsten repeated. "They are the people we are expected to trust to help keep you alive, after all."
How could she say no to that? "Okay then. Around oneish?"
"Perfect. See you then!"
Faith hung up with a click and went to join the group.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah. Are you guys doing anything this afternoon? My parents would like to meet you." She found herself blushing slightly under the four stares that came her way.
"Well, Dawn has several ancient texts to translate, but I'm sure she won't mind leaving them for a few hours." Buffy said after a pause.
"Cool." Faith nodded, trying to shake off the feeling a big mistake. "Just don't scare them, okay?"
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Faith looked back at the group behind her as they waited for someone to answer the door. She knew for a fact that Xander had warned the three slayers and Dawn against saying anything too 'slayer-y', for which she was rather grateful. Angel had also refused her reluctant offer of dashing to the house under the cover of a smoking blanket. He'd been happy to stay at the hotel and meet her parents after sunset when he wouldn't scare them as much.
Seth answered the door eating a slice of pizza. "Hey Faith." He waved the group inside and called for his parents.
Sandy and Kirsten came into the entrance within the minute and were introduced to the four new faces.
"Wasn't there meant to be five of you on the plane?" Sandy asked when the introductions were completed.
Buffy and Xander exchanged looks. "Yeah, there's Angel. But he sort of has an issue with sunlight."
Sandy's smile dimmed a notch at the reminder of the supernatural. He firmly reminded himself that Faith only had good things to say about the vampire and by all accounts he helped her a great deal when she was bad.
"Oh of course, Faith did tell us. Are you all slayers?" Kirsten said, slightly stumbling over the word 'slayer'. It still all seemed rather unbelievable.
"Dawn's not." Vi answered.
"Oh?"
"Oh no, she's just my sister."
Dawn gave Buffy a quick glare. "Thanks Buffy."
Buffy just smiled. "It's great to meet you all."
Sandy returned the smile. "You too, Faith and Xander have told us a lot about you Buffy."
"Yeah? What kind of stuff?" Buffy's looked nervously at Faith who smirked back. "I'm afraid we know nothing about any of you."
"Well it's not all that interesting really." Kirsten lead the adults into the living room, but Seth caught Shannon's arm to stop her from following.
"Oh no, you don't want to hear that. Come hang out in the pool house, it's where the young people go." Seth confided in a stage whisper.
"Sounds good." Shannon said with a look at Vi and Dawn. They followed Seth, outside.
Buffy poked Xander in the ribs. "When did we become the old ones?"
"We're old?"
Buffy smiled at him and turned to Dawn. "No having fun- you're grounded."
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Whatever Buffy."
Seth patted her shoulder in sympathy as they left the room. "Dude you're grounded? That sucks."
"Tell me about it. It won't last though; it never does." Dawn said as they got out of earshot.
"I still don't get how you can wind her round your little finger no matter what you do and she still busts my ass for doing a little solo slayage." Shannon groaned.
"A) I've known her my entire life; I know all her weak points. And B) I'm her sister, it comes with the territory." A thought occurred to her and she turned to Seth. "I can show you a few things that work with Faith if you want. Tears are key."
Seth gave Dawn a strange look. "I don't think that'll work for me. I'm far too manly."
He glared at Ryan who was smirking and Marissa who was having a giggle fit.
"I am so manly. Stop laughing at me!"
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Xander looked at his watch and tapped Faith on the shoulder. "Half hour till sunset."
"We better get going." She agreed. The afternoon had gone surprisingly well. Buffy knew the right angle to put on slaying stories in front of parents having had lots of experience with her own mother. The Cohen's still didn't look happy about it, but seemed to be more at ease than the previous days.
"Are you sure you won't stay for dinner?"
"I've got to take Dawn back to the hotel before we go slaying and we need to pick up Angel." Buffy said as an explanation.
"You're going to leave her there alone? Is that safe. She can always come here for the evening." Kirsten immediately offered.
"Are you sure? I wouldn't want her to be an imposition." Buffy said, more to Faith than to Kirsten.
"B, you know you worry when you leave junior on her own."
"Thanks, that would be great."
"I'll go tell her and get the newbies." Faith offered, getting up and heading to the pool house.
She knocked briefly before entering. "Anyone who's a slayer is leaving. D, you're staying here while we party."
Dawn shrugged. "It's better than working in the hotel."
Faith smirked. "B said she was gonna drop round some Sumerian text that Giles wants translated by the morning."
"Joy." That was the only problem with being grounded, Buffy expected her to do a lot more work than she would usually.
"You work?" Summer, who had arrived after the rest, but had promptly been told the big 'secret' by blabbermouth-Seth, said incredulously.
"Yeah, as a translator of dead languages for the council. It's about as much fun as it sounds."
"She hits the books while we hit the baddies." Shannon quipped with a grin.
"Hey, I so hit stuff too!" Dawn protested. "I just don't have an obsession about it like some people."
"Like some people who could kick your ass from here to China?"
"Hey, hey!" Faith interrupted. "Shannon, Vi- get gone. D- don't do anything stupid."
"As if!" Dawn said, her face a picture of innocence.
But Faith didn't buy it for a second. She knew Dawn was a bit of a risk taker, hell, everyone knew it, and tended to act first, think later. Later generally being when she got kidnapped and/ or attacked. That was the main reason why Buffy had spent a lot of time training Dawn, so that she could protect herself and any other people she got kidnapped with.
"Don't get them into trouble." She added in a low voice so that Seth and his friends couldn't over hear.
Dawn was surprised by Faith's serious tone. "I won't, you have my word."
Faith nodded and offered her a slight smile before following the other two slayers through the door.
"Stay safe." Dawn called after them. "Don't get dead!"
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"Buffy said your parents were nice." Angel said in his usual soft voice.
"Yeah, they're great."
"That's good. You deserve a little happiness."
She bit back the retort about his sappiness and smiled instead. "Thanks."
"And they're okay… with everything?" Angel said his eyes firmly on the ground he was walking over. When Buffy had invited him to help Faith, he couldn't refuse her if she needed help, he never could. But he had been cautious about making things awkward between Faith and her parents. He was a vampire, a creature of the night, a demon. Not the thing you'd want to introduce to your parents, especially when they only known of you existence for a couple of days.
"They will be. It takes a bit of getting used to, but they'll get there." Faith said confidently. She'd seen enough in the last couple of days to know that the Cohen's were more than happy to make an effort. "I did tune down the losing-your-soul thing, though."
"Probably a good idea." He said with a bitter sweet smile.
"Besides, you never tried to kill me like Buffy did, and they're fine with her."
"Did I hear my name?" Buffy popped up from where she had been walking behind them.
"Just saying how much my parents liked you guys, and that they'll be fine with Angel." Faith said. The poison arrow/ stabbing incident had been discussed once shortly after the defeat of the First, but then was pushed into the background. Something they would always remember, but never mention.
"Oh yeah? They'll love Angel. Everyone loves Angel, he's Angel."
"No shit."
"Except for after the evil thing, of course, but now everyone loves you again. Even Xander tolerates you and he used to hate your guts."
"I'm gonna make sure Shannon and Vi know what they're doing." Angel said, not all that happy with the way the conversation was going. It was making him nervous.
"He is way too easy to wind up." Buffy grinned.
"Yeah." Faith said before they lapsed into silence as they walked.
"So, parents, huh?" Buffy finally said, trying to strike up a conversation with Faith.
"Uh huh."
"How's that working out for ya?"
"So far it's good."
"They seem nice. And they're okay with the slayer thing?"
"They don't like it, but they get it." Faith explained.
"Ah."
They continued to walk in silence for a while, listening to the night sounds.
Buffy turned towards her. "Now you've got them, just don't take them for granted, okay?"
Faith stopped walking and held her gaze for a minute. Buffy was always so strong, so together, that it was easy to forget that it had only been a few short years since her own mother died and she was forced to take on the role for her younger sister.
"I won't."
The next break in silence came from the ringing of Faith's mobile phone.
"Hello? What happened…Don't move, we're on our way."
"What's wrong?" Buffy asked urgently.
"It's Lil' D, Seth and his friends. They're all gone."
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Next Chapter: Operation find Seth