Chapter 37

Stepping into the sunlight, she straightened her blue camisole and pulled the shoulder strap of her bag higher on her shoulder. Her black boots and long jeans were making her sweat; it was ridiculously hot. Her hair was longer now, a few inches past her shoulders. Today it was pulled back into a ponytail; it was too hot out to have her hair against her neck. Looking around, she adjusted her sunglasses a little. She hoped they weren't late. Waiting out in the sun would put her in a bad mood.

"Faith?" She turned around and allowed herself to smile.

"Charles Gunn. Good to see you."

"You too." He motioned towards a car sitting at the curb and the pair got into the back seat.

"Doesn't anyone drive themselves around here?"

"Not if we can help it. How've you been?"

"Good. Did some traveling. Saw some sights. Cool stuff, I guess. So, what's on the agenda for today?"

She was right down to business. Gunn liked that in a person, especially in a woman. She looked good, a little lighter emotionally that the last time he had seen her, Gunn thought. Her mouth turned upwards in a half smile much easier and more readily than he remembered and her eyes looked a little less haunted.

"We're going to the office. You'll meet up with Angel and the two of you are going to see a few locations for the school. Then there's a meeting with The Council, via satellite. By The Council, I mean Willow and Giles. They seem to be the only people worth talking to anyway."

"Yeah," she smiled a little, "they shook that place up. After it was blown up, anyway. There is no one else to talk to. There's Red and there's Giles. That's it." She paused and looked serious. "I heard Connor's had a hell of a time lately. The kid lost his family, Red said."

Gunn shifted in his seat. This was still a sore subject among the group of friends. Their failure in finding the people who murdered Connor's family seemed to eat at them daily. "Yeah, his whole family's gone. Angel's all he's got left."

She nodded and seemed to take that information in for a few moments. "And B's got a bun in the oven, huh? Amazing. That guy just cranks 'em out." The joke was poor and she said it in almost a whisper. She really was happy for Buffy. Jealous, but happy. Sighing, Faith shifted in her seat and readjusted her sunglasses. Thinking of Buffy and Angel expecting a child was almost too much for the slayer to comprehend. A fleeting part of her wondered when she would have that kind of happiness. That part of her retreated quickly into her subconscious.

Robin and she had worked out for a while. For almost a year, they had been happy together, traveling throughout Europe, finding slayers. She almost wished he would have turned out to be evil, or would have betrayed her horribly in some way. Instead, though, it had been mutual misunderstandings that left their relationship broken and crumpled. As hard as she tried, she just couldn't seem to get it together for him and he couldn't seem to be patient enough with her.

Glancing at Gunn, she smiled to herself. She remembered the flirting that had gone on between her and the handsome black man the first time Faith had met him in L.A. She wondered if he had a pregnant girlfriend somewhere too.

As they pulled into the parking lot of Wolfram and Hart, Faith couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. She remembered the people that worked in this building and for this corporation as being so inherently evil that they hired her to kill Angel. Shivering a little at the memory, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as they walked into the building and stepped into the elevator. She was glad there was no one here who would remember who she had been in those years.

Just as she thought she would safe from the harsh criticism of anyone who would have known her before the Sunnydale apocalypse, she caught sight of Wesley. She opened her mouth to say something but was stunned speechless as the man came closer. He was gorgeously rugged and focusing a disarming grin in her direction. Taking the offered hand, they exchanged pleasantries for a short moment before going into the conference room. Surprised at the warm reception, Faith said very little to former watcher. She wasn't sure what she could say to the man she had previously tortured almost to death.

Angel was already in the room. He was flanked by Will and Connor. Faith had to hide her laughter, although she suspected she did it poorly. Seeing will in slacks and button down almost undid her. His new choice of hair style, he thought, was the perfect finishing touch. The man she had known as Spike was really dead, she realized. She and Will shock hands, both of them giving the other a very amused look. Faith sobered when she shook Connor's hand. She remembered Angel's son as precocious, flirtatious and headstrong. The man she was being reintroduced to was none of those things. This man looked as though he had seen hell one to many times.

Once everyone was seated and coffee had been passed around, Angel decided it was time to start the official part of the meeting. Connor had been included because Angel thought the normalcy of the proceedings would comfort the young man. Besides that, there was precious little for his son to do at the office. Will would soon take Connor aside and go through information and leads, but until then the young man would have to sit through a Council meeting and Faith's orientation.

"We decided, in the interest of time, to meet with Willow and Giles before we go see the sites. They have pictures and information on all three sites so they're already pretty well appraised of our options." Angel lifted a remote and aimed it at the far wall. The wall slid down into the cabinet and a television was revealed. The screen was split, Willow's smiling visage was on one side and Giles was seen on the other.

"Alright. Giles, Willow's told you that Wolfram and Hart agrees with all the stated objectives of the proposal. We have no changes to offer. Do you want to change any aspect of the agreement before we proceed?"

"No. The Council has no objectives and wishes to move on with the agreement."

"Good. Moving on."

Willow's snickering cut through the moment of silence. "That was pompous."

The entire group seemed to lighten at that remark. Gunn responded. "It was necessary. We need legally binding contracts to do all this. Even business with friends is still business."

"Agreed. Okey-dokey. Faith, thanks again for signing on for this. And Angel, it's great that you agreed to everything."

"It was a well written proposal, Willow. Besides that, I think it's a good idea. Now, let's talk about students. Who's coming to this school?"

Giles cleared his throat before speaking. "The slayers from the West coast, of course, will be included. There are a total of ninety-three students that have applied to the school. Twenty-eight of those students are currently enrolled in Slayer Academies in Europe. They are, mostly, the students that moved to be included in the schools but are originally from the states. They would like to be closer to home, which is understandable.

The others are slayers in the states that either couldn't afford the move to Europe or the U.K. or they were unwilling to move that far. The school in Cleveland has been working fairly well, but the location is too small and the leadership leaves something to be desired. Thirty of the ninety-three applicants will stay in Cleveland or be moved there. They are already advanced students, doing well, and there is no reason to send them to the new academy.

So, we have sixty-three students coming to L.A. They are scheduled to arrive within ten weeks. We have a little less than two months to get this school ready for them."

Angel nodded and sipped his coffee. "Okay. Sixty-three students. The locations we're looking at are old high schools. They're all big and we have crews standing by at each to begin new construction. We'll expand half the classrooms into small gyms. The other half of the rooms will stay the way they are, for classes. We'll build dormitories nearby. It will be like a college town, basically. Two months isn't long enough, really, to build the facilities we need, but we can put them in hotels and other places until the dorms are built."

Faith took a deep breath. "So what am I supposed to do with these girls? I can't teach all of them."

"I understand that," Giles said, "we're sending two teachers from the London branch to you. You'll need to fill out the staff. I'm sure Angel already has a few people in mind. One of Dawns' old professors has volunteered to come teach. There are five slayers that have completed their training and have been in the field for almost five years. You'll remember Rona and Vi. They'll be coming to you."

Faith was laughing lightly under her breath. "So, what you're saying is that we're screwed. I mean, absolutely screwed. We have five slayers coming to teach what? Fighting techniques? I remember Rona and Vi. They sucked. I mean, I'm sure they're better now than they were back then. So, we have five senior slayers and three teachers for almost seventy people? What am I going to do with that?"

Angel cleared his throat. "Dawn's going to be teaching for a while. She's moving to part time status here so she can teach a class. We're going to schedule it like a college. We'll start with twelve classes and they can pick as many as the feel comfortable taking. Dawn's taking a class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her old professor, Dr. Wilkins, is taking three classes. The people Giles is sending us, Dr. Abrams and Dr. Palmer will be taking three classes each. That's ten. We need to find one other person to teach two classes. I think I have someone in mind, he teaches part time at UCLA. Dr. Saller. He's good.

"The five slayers coming," he looked at his notes, "Rona, Vi, Samantha, Carla, and Victoria; they'll run training sessions. Those are separate from the classes. Each girl will have to attend at least one training session a day and they'll last about two hours each. I have three personal trainers I've hired to work at the gym we're going to build.

We need each person teaching, there's five, to take about ten girls as advisees. You know, to help them choose classes. Faith, even though you're going to be head master, I want you to take five girls on as advisees. We'll work it so that each slayer has an advisor. Anyway, that's the plan."

He looked at Faith, hoping that she would still be interested. Shaking her head, she fought a smile and failed. "Alright. Sounds kosher. So, we need to assign classes to everybody and print up like a brochure or something. And we need to pick a place to put this school."

The group briefly discussed the nature of the classes but decided that the professors would be given a lot of leeway in choosing what they wanted to teach. After a few hours of the meeting, everyone was ready to continue their conversations at a later date. Goodbyes were said and Angel made sure Connor would be alright without him the rest of the day. The young man seemed a little cheered after the meeting.

It was nearly lunch and Angel was regretting not eating much breakfast. After asking Faith to lunch, he and the slayer left the law office. The drive was quiet. Faith was contemplating what her role was to be with this operation and Angel was making lists of all the things that needed to be done. Lunch was short and conversation revolved mostly around Faith's traveling and Angel's expectant fatherhood.

By the time they reached the first site, Faith was in a much better mood than she had been when he had walked off the plane. Angel was funny and making small talk with him was a lot less painful than she had imagined it would be. They traveled between different potential academy sites, reminiscing throughout the long afternoon. After hours of perusing their options, they both agreed on the site that seemed best.

As Angel dropped Faith off at her hotel, they hugged. Faith had to admit, it was nice to see the person that had always believed in her, even when she was trying to kill him. Angel had been the only one that had given her more second chances than she deserved. As she let her hair down and changed into clothes more appropriate for the club scene, she smiled. It was going to be nice to be back in the family.