Thanks for all the wonderful comments on this story. Sorry it's been a while. Things got in the way— life, etc. Anyway, will try to update more often. Hope the new bit doesn't suck – ml
The nurse walked into Xander Harris' room and prepared the shot. "What's this?" Xander asked.
"The new American girl said that you were feeling some discomfort," the nurse replied as she grabbed Xander's limp arm.
"What do you mean? I can't FEEL anything, that's the problem with this whole paralysis thing."
"Uh huh," the nurse said, not really listening as she gave Xander the shot.
"No," Xander tried to stop her, "It was Faith; she doesn't want me talking to Giles."
"Well, you're not going to be talking to anyone for the next eight to ten hours, I'd imagine," the nurse said to herself as she exited the room and closed the door.
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Faith and Wesley walked through the cool English countryside as they patrolled near the Watchers' Council castle.
"You guys like to build with stone," Faith muttered as she looked back on the structure trying to shake off her fatigue. Her brief nap in the afternoon had done little to revive her.
"This castle had resisted invasions long before North America was on a map," Wesley said as he too looked back. "That's what it's like to be part of the tradition that is the Watchers' Council. It's what Xander and the others have such a hard time understanding. We're simply links in a great chain stretching back untold millennia."
"I'm more than a link," Faith said hurriedly.
"Why are you Americans always like that," Wesley asked seriously. "You are part of a noble cause; an unbroken lineage. Why isn't that enough?"
Faith looked into the eyes of the young Englishman and saw that he was serious about this. "I…I don't know," she said as she started back down the lane. "Maybe we don't have traditions like you. Maybe we just want to be remembered for ourselves."
"Well, then we best start now," Wesley said with a smile. "One of the abilities most Slayers gain fairly quickly is the ability to sense the presence of a vampire. Have you noticed anything…"
"That happened to me last night," Faith said, her smile matching that of her Watcher. "There was this guy in the apartment beside mine. I'd seen him lots of times before. But last night, after I…changed or whatever, I felt something in my gut. I knew he was bad news. It was wicked creepy. Then he tried to attack me."
"Very good. That's extremely encouraging. Buffy never really developed her ability in this regard, and Kendra only had it to a limited degree. This could prove invaluable for us. I want you to try and extend your senses. Can you feel any dark forces in the area?"
Faith continued walking, trying to remember how she had felt the previous evening when she had seen the vampire. She felt something off to her right. She reached out her left hand and took a stake from Wesley. The sword remained in her right hand. "I think I got him. Heart's on the left side, right?" Not waiting for a response, she bounded off into the night, leaving Wesley far behind.
"Wait," Wesley called out in vain to Faith's retreating form.
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Willow, Dawn, and Cordelia dropped by Xander's room in the infirmary after finishing dinner. As they entered, they saw Xander with his tongue stuck out, biting it. Blood was streaming down his chin.
"Xander?" Willow said to her oldest friend.
Xander looked over to them, his eyes glassy. "Thank God." His eyes blinked closed. Forcing them open again, he continued. "Wesley took Faith out on patrol. She's not ready. Tell Giles."
"Okay," Willow said hurriedly.
Xander, exhausted by his efforts to fight the tranquilizer, yielded to the drug and fell asleep. Dawn remained by his bedside and tended to his self-inflicted wound.
As Willow and Cordelia left Xander's room, Oz was just arriving. The recovering werewolf had joined the council a few months ago, finally secure in his belief that his inner demon was under control. He and the former Scoobies were still in the process of regaining their former friendship, but all of them trusted the small man and were aware of his abilities.
"Oz," Cordelia said sharply, "We need you to track Wesley? Can you do it?"
"I'm not sure," Oz said not cracking a smile, "there's a lot of tweed here. Kinda hard to get the scent."
"Oz, we need to find him," Willow said.
"Sure," the werewolf replied.
"He went out on patrol with the new Slayer," Willow supplied, leading the way to the exit.
"Okay," Oz replied as he sniffed the air. "I think they went this way," he said as he walked eastward.
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Faith sped through the night, intent on locating whatever had alerted her senses. As she approached a cemetery, she noticed a figure jumping over the low stone wall. "Gotcha," she said to herself, intent on closing in for the kill.
Wesley, falling ever further behind with each stride his Slayer took, noted with pride that Faith had located a vampire easily. "This will show Mr. Giles," Wesley whispered to himself, happily as he slowed to a walk. "Now all I have to do is document the kill." Faith had caught the vampire before it could enter the woods and was now using her sword to hack at the undead creature. The vampire ripped a branch from a nearby tree and was using it to evade Faith's thrusts. The newly minted Slayer grew quickly frustrated by the vampire's successful defense.
Wesley drew out a notebook so that he could go over the battle in detail with Faith later. The sword technique was sloppy. There was much he could do with her, if she had the right attitude, he thought. "Just as well," he mused. "It's always important to note areas of potential improvement." That was when he saw the second and third vampires jumping over the wall just in front of him. "Oh…Damn," Wesley muttered. The vampires were between Faith and the Watcher. Faith was focused on her battle. The newly arrived demons were intent on Wesley. He drew out a cross and stake and called out, "Faith!"
In doing so, he failed to see the vampire that had come up behind him. The demon knocked the cross from his hand. In that instant, Wesley was reluctantly grateful for the hours of sparring Xander and the others had insisted he undergo since they had arrived after the destruction of the Sunnydale Hellmouth. The Watcher effortlessly fell into a roll, ducking under the demon as it tried to grab him. He scrambled to his feet and reached into his jacket pocket for a vial of Holy Water. He threw it into the face of the nearest vampire. The liquid scalded the face of the demon, giving Wesley an opportunity to back away. He knew that he couldn't outrun the demons, but if he could stay alive for a few minutes, there was every chance that Faith would dispatch her quarry and return for him. If he was smart and lucky…
Faith had managed to knock the branch out of the demon's hands and had cut off its left arm at the elbow. As the vampire screamed in pain, it had blocked out Wesley's calls. Faith smiled as she came in for the kill. She kicked out the vampire's knee, causing it to tumble to the ground. With a feline grace, Faith tossed the sword in the air, drove her stake into the vampire with both hands, then rolled to a stop and caught the sword as it fell. As she turned around, the vampire fell into dust.
"And that's one for the new Slayer," Faith said with a smile. "So, what do you think Wesley?" She looked for her Watcher, "Wes?"
That was when she heard a scream. As she ran towards the noise, she felt the presence of other demons. It hadn't occurred to her that there could be more than one vampire in an area.
She saw Wesley lying on the ground with two demons fighting over the body. Faith had left her stake in the dusted vampire, so she only had her sword as she fought two vampires for the first time. The demons initially fell back, but watching Faith's clumsy lunges, they soon surged forward. They stayed apart, forcing the young Slayer to swing her sword in wide arcs to keep them away. They laughed as they forced her farther away from the cemetery.
Faith looked back at her fallen Watcher. He was motionless. In that instant, one of the vampires charged her. Faith took a kick to the stomach, but twisted and landed a glancing blow against the vampire's side.
The other demon jumped on the Slayer's back, forcing her to the ground. The injured vampire kicked at Faith, managing to connect with both Faith's back and the other vampire's face. Grabbing his jaw angrily, the vampire lost his grip on the American.
Faith kicked free and took a punch in the face from the vampire she had cut with the sword. The blow forced her to drop her blade, and she was weaponless and bleeding. She continued to flee the two demons.
"I fucked up," Faith thought as she panted for breath. "Xander was right, I wasn't ready. I got Wesley killed, now I gonna die too."
The vampire with the wound in its side grabbed the sword and tossed it away. Unfortunately, the sword struck the other vampire in the leg. Furious, that he had been twice wounded by his fellow demon, the vampire grabbed the sword, crept up behind the other vampire, and swung the blade in a deadly arc. He neatly decapitated the demon.
Faith tried to use the distraction to escape, but the vampire continued his pursuit. "I'm coming little one," he called.
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Wesley struggled to regain consciousness. He looked around, wondering where both Faith and the vampires had gone. "I don't understand what happened," he whispered to himself. He tried to stand, but fell back to the earth.
Wesley's head swam. As he tried once again to sit up, he heard a rustle in the grass behind him. It was the vampire he had splashed with Holy Water. The boiling of its flesh had ceased, and the demon's hideous face was scowling at the Watcher.
"I guess it's just the two of us now," the vampire hissed.
The last thing Wesley heard before passing out was a familiar, much detested voice, saying, "Wrong."
The Watcher never saw the bolt of lightning Willow used to kill the vampire.
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Faith continued running away from the vampire, wracking her brain for anything that might help her survive. She remembered the bit about vampires not being able to cross running water, so she ran down the hill and splashed across a small stream.
The vampire followed close behind. He laughed as he reached the bank, seeing Faith panting beside a tree. He saw that blood from Faith's wounds had dripped on the grass beside the stream. He touched it with his index finger, then licked his finger.
"You are strong…rich." The vampire rolled the taste around his mouth with his tongue. "You're a Slayer. A baby Slayer!" He looked at the stream. "So, you think vampire's can't cross running water. Very good. How ever shall I get to you, now?" He laughed and jumped to the far bank, just in front of Faith."
"Now what will you do?" He asked
"This!" Faith yelled as she struck his chest with the tree branch she had broken off. She watched the vampire dust and collapsed in tears.
It had taken her less than a day to ruin the one chance she had to make a better life for herself. After getting Wesley killed, she had no doubt that the Council would be after her. Even if she could evade them, there were demons to worry about. There was no way out.
As she continued sobbing, she remembered the drugs that she had taken from the Council infirmary. All she wanted was for the medicine to take her pain away, one last time.
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Cordelia led Wesley to the infirmary. The young Watcher was going to recover, he only had a neck laceration and a mild concussion.
It took Willow and Oz ten minutes to find Faith, get her back to the Council headquarters, and alert the doctors. Later the doctors told them that if it had taken eleven minutes they would have lost the young American.
As it was, Willow and Giles kept a vigil by Faith's bed. Willow looked over at the head of the Watchers' Council, hoping that the former librarian had words of wisdom to offer the young girl, not aware that Giles was hoping that the wiccan knew something that might help.
Neither knew what they were going to do with this young, obviously damaged girl. Nor did they want to admit that they were both thinking about what the old Councils' reaction to Faith's episode would have been, and how that might be the wisest course to take.
Thanks for reading. Next up, dueling hospital beds. Please review - ml