Working Together

When Angel brought Faith to the hotel she walked in looking very confused and even a little scared. When Angel went to the prison to give Faith the pregnancy test he ended up breaking her out of jail instead. He didn't really explain much about what was going on. He pretty much just told her that he knew she was pregnant and that he needed to get her out of there.

He explained things more to her in the car ride back to the hotel. He explained to her the prophecy of The Eight and how Cordelia had a vision that she was involved in it. It was all a little overwhelming and scary. No one was completely sure of exactly what was going to happen but Faith couldn't really see herself as a mother. Her kid would grow up without a father because lord knows she could never stay with just one man, and her parents, if you could even call them that, weren't exactly big helps when it came to teaching her how to have her own family one day.

"This is just too weird," Faith said as she walked into the hotel with Angel. "All my life since I've been old enough I've slept with guys and been pretty reckless. Sometimes I didn't even use protection but never once did I get pregnant or even have a pregnancy scare. Never got an STD either but now I haven't gotten laid in like two years and I'm pregnant." Faith shook her head. "This world makes zero sense to me."

Angel put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "We're going to figure this out."

Faith forced a smile his way. "I sure hope so."

Angel smiled back. "Wes, Cordy?" he started to yell when he didn't see anyone in the lobby.

When they heard Angel was back Wesley, Gunn, Cordelia and Fred came into the lobby. "Well look who it is," Cordelia said in a slightly nasty way.

"Nice to see you too Cor," Faith responded. "This is a nice place you guys got here."

"It's not bad for an office," Angel commented with a slight smile.

"Angel," Wesley said with a nervous look on his face. "You had a call while you were out."

Angel gets a lot of calls but he could tell that this one was important by the way Wesley was acting. "Who was it?" he asked.

"It was Buffy," Cordelia answered.

"Oh yeah does B know about me yet?" Faith asked Angel.

"As far as I knew she didn't know about any of you," he answered. "What did she say?"

"Well," Cordy started, "She asked me if I was pregnant."

"So she knows about you guys?" Angel questioned.

"She said that her friend Willow did a locator spell somehow with a map or something," Fred responded. "It didn't reveal exactly where we were but it showed us in LA. They remembered that Cordy has the visions and thought they'd see if she was one of The Eight."

"What did everyone talk to Buffy?" Angel said.

"We had her on speaker phone," Gunn responded.

"Well…" Angel started to say, "Did she umm…did she even want to talk to me?"

Cordelia smiled at him. "She wants you to call her back. She asked if you were here before she even realized it was me answering the phone."

Angel felt relived. He would hate it if she hadn't even asked about him at all. "I guess I should go call her back then." He started to walk to his office and then turned around. "Fred can you do me a favor and set Faith up a room?"

"Sure thing boss," Fred responded with a smile.

"Thanks," he replied and then he continued into the office to call Buffy.

"FAITH!?" Willow yelled. "You mean psycho killer Faith who is in prison where she belongs? Are you kidding me?"

"Willow!" Buffy said with shock at her reaction.

"I'm sorry Buffy but I find it very hard to believe that Faith is one of the warriors for good that are supposed to have miracle children. I mean she can't even take care of herself how is she going to take care of a child?"

"I don't know but it doesn't really seem like your giving her a chance," Buffy responded.

"I don't really see why you are," Dawn said jumping into the conversation. "I mean this is the girl that stole your body remember?"

"She's different now," Buffy said really trying very hard to take Faith's side. It wasn't easy and she wasn't even sure why she was doing it but if Faith was part of this prophecy then it must mean that she really is getting better. But she still wasn't fully buying even her own words saying that she was different now. "Or so I'm told," she added with an eye roll.

"And Angel is, let me make sure I heard you right, 'taking' her out of prison?" Xander asked.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders, "That's what Wesley said."

"Well that's just great," Willow said sarcastically.

"They didn't really have much of a choice," Buffy pointed out.

Giles nodded his head in agreement. "Buffy's right. She is in an all women's prison, Willow. They would obviously find out she was pregnant and then they would probably think she was having an affair with one of the guards or they wouldn't know what to think. Either way she'd probably be punished for something she had no control over."

Willow just looked away. She knew he was right but she wasn't a huge fan of Faith and knowing that she was out of jail wasn't really helping any. Before anyone could say anything more the phone rang.

"That's probably Angel," Buffy said as she walked to the phone and picked it up. "Hello."

"Hey Buffy," Angel said nervously on the other end.

"Angel," Buffy greeted also sounding a little nervous.

"Umm…Wesley told me you called," he started, "I guess you know what's been going on."

Buffy nodded her head even though she knew he couldn't see it. "The prophecy of The Eight. I'm familiar with it," she said as she looked down nervously.

"I have Faith here," Angel said.

"Good," she responded tried to sound as if she was actually interested. "That's good."

Angel rolled his eyes. It was time to just break the nervousness already. "Listen Buffy I know this is all really confusing and difficult to deal with but I think we all need to work together on this."

Buffy took in a deep breath and then let it out. "I agree."

"I was thinking that maybe you and the others should come to LA for a few days," Angel said nervously. "Just so we can all work together and try and figure this whole thing out." He waited in silence. He wasn't sure what she would say to this.

She sat there and thought about it for a few moments. It was a good idea in theory. The Eight girls were all in this together weather they liked it or not and things would probably go much smoother if they all worked together. "I think that sounds like a good idea…but," Buffy finally said, "Why do we have to go there? Why can't you guys come here? I mean there are less of you and more of us."

Angel rolled his eyes, 'she can be so childish sometimes,' he thought to himself. "I know that but I have a hotel here. There's much more space and after what happened your senior year with the taking of Giles' books and then the school burning down I think he have a more extensive collection of research material."

Buffy rolled her eyes. He had a point. "Alright…you win."

"And it doesn't just have to be you five girls that come of course. You can bring the others too, Giles, Xander," Angel added for the icing on the cake. "We have plenty of room."

"Thanks, Can I call you back though?" she asked. "I'm going to talk this over with the others."

"Sure," he responded quickly. "Take as much time as you need. Call me back whenever. I'll be here."

"Ok," she said with a small smile. "I'll talk to you later."

Angel smiled a little too on the other end as he hung up the phone. He knew that she would convince them to go. Buffy was coming and even though he knew nothing had changed he was excited, happy even.

Buffy hung up the phone and started walking back into the living room where the others were. She was going. She knew she was going. Convincing the others to go wouldn't be hard especially with the information Angel used to convince her. The thought of seeing him gave her mixed feelings. She was excited but also worried. She didn't really know what to expect.

"Was it Angel?" Willow asked Buffy when she got into the room.

"Yeah," Buffy responded. They all looked at her waiting to hear what he said. "He has an idea."

"What is it?" Dawn asked.

"He thinks that we should go to LA," Buffy answered. She immediately got all kinds of different looks from everyone in the room. Before anyone could say anything she continued to explain. "It would only be for a few days while we figure this whole thing out better. The eight of us girls are in this together weather we like it or not and I think we all need to work together on this. Angel has a hotel so there's plenty of room and Wesley supposedly has all the research materials we'd need. And the invitation wasn't just for the five of us. Angel wants the two of you to come also," she said to Giles and Xander.

They all sat in silence for a little while thinking about it. "I think we should go," Buffy said breaking the silence.

"What about Dawn?" Giles asked.

"Yeah, I have school on Monday," Dawn added.

"This situation is going to affect your whole future Dawny," Buffy explained sadly. "You can afford to miss a few days."

"Buffy has a point," Tara helped. "We should probably do this. The more people we have figuring all of this out the better."

They all started nodding their heads in agreement. The only one who was left expressionless was Xander. They all looked at him for approval. He looked at them and realized that even if he said he didn't like this idea it wasn't going to help any. "Alright," he said with a sigh. "I guess we should go."

"Good," Buffy said firmly. "So we're all in agreement then?" They all nodded their heads and then Buffy did the same. "Alright then, everyone go home or go up to your rooms and start packing. We'll leave tonight. I'll go call Angel."

Willow, Tara and Dawn said good bye to Giles, Xander and Anya and then went upstairs to start packing. As Giles, Xander and Anya walked out the door to go start packing none of them even realized that Spike had been watching through the window and listening the whole time.

He looked extremely angry and even a little hurt. He really thought he might have been making progress with Buffy last night but now he realized he was wrong. "She didn't even bloody think of me at all in this did she?" he said to himself. "No, it's all Angel this and Angel that. Let's go to Angel's. Screw Spike. Spike who? Did she even think that maybe I would want to come and help?" He laughed at himself. "Oh who am I kidding? Of course I wouldn't want to help."

After saying this he started thinking. "Maybe that's it," he said to himself. "I don't care enough. I don't want to help. I guess a vampire's gotta have a soul to win her heart."

He started walking away from the house with a determined look on his face. "Guess I better go get mine back."