Chapter 48

She hadn't laughed so hard in months; Gunn was a very funny man, Faith mused. Dinner had been going exceptionally well, and for once in her life Faith felt like a lady instead of a warrior. She was dressed in black slacks and a black button-down shirt. Even her shoes were feminine, which she also liked to call stupid. Fred had loaned her the top and the pants had come from some place downtown Angel had recommended. All in all, Faith felt her night was going very successful.

Years of loneliness of frustration had softened the chosen woman. Her predilection for violence had lessened somewhat and her desire to be stationary had started to enhance. Moving around the globe had made her weary. Every city and every new face had blended together into years of anonymity; she found it tiring. Throughout her childhood, she had tried to blend into the background at home to escape the wrath of her volatile mother but in public had fought to be recognized as strong and daring. In her adolescents, after she had been called, she had perfected the methods of standing out. Now, she thought, perhaps she would be able to find an in between she could fit happily into.

Her love of black eye liner had diminished as her love of the outdoors had grown. It wasn't until she had been hiking Mont Blanc during her trek of Europe that she had realized what city life had robbed her of. Soot and smog covered starry skies had become her usual surroundings; throughout her three years of freedom, she had discovered there was another way. During the time she had been in China directly after her breakup with Robin, she had decided to travel to Tibet. It was then that she understood the peace Giles had rambled on about so often.

The stories of Tibetan monks had always seemed to her to be ridiculous. She had doubts that anyone could walk hot coals with a straight face or heal twice as fast as normal people. It was there, though, that she learned of biofeedback and meditation. Meditation was still something she struggled with; action was much easier than rest for the slayer, but biofeedback she had taken to as a duck to water.

Learning patience, training to strike after planning and expressing her anger in constrictive ways had taken time. She had been frustrated often at how slow of a pupil she had seemed. Now, though, she was proud of herself for the first time in her life. She felt more like a person and less like a machine. Her sense of humor and impulsiveness hadn't ebbed in the least, but she felt more on an evil keel since her time in Europe.

They were half way through their entrées when Faith realized that although she had changed throughout the years her taste buds were still the same. Whatever they were eating was not the normal fare she would have chosen, especially for a first date. Even time over seas, eating many things she could not comprehend or identify, hadn't changed her love for good old fashioned greasy cheeseburgers and french-fries.

"What are we eating?"

"Pâté de Lapin. It's rabbit pâté."

Setting her fork down with practiced control, she looked at him with a crooked grin. "I'm eating little peter cotton tail? Really? I mean, not that he isn't tasty, but…is this how you impress all your dates?"

"No…well, I mean this place is petty popular. You have to know somebody or kill somebody to get a table. I thought, well, yeah, I guess I thought you'd be impressed."

"Have you ever met me? Gunn, let's get out of here. Come on." Standing with a wicked grin, she waited for him to stand as well.

A waiter rushed to them and Faith waited with incredible patience as Gunn explained the food was fine and they were not offended by anything but that he had received an urgent phone call and they had been forced to leave. Faith listened with one ear as he placated the waiter before they left. She had been to busy planning their night to pay much attention to the conversation.

Once in the parking lot, Gunn put his hands in his pockets and started for his car. "What now?"

"I'm hungry. And if we can swing by my place so I can change, we can go to a real restaurant. One that serves things I can identify."

He would have been offended if not for her smile. She was disarming when she wanted to be, he realized. It was perhaps what made her so deadly. She escorted him to her hotel room when they arrived there and she changed quickly into jeans and a black tube top. He was still wearing his suit, but discarded the tie and jacket in the car.

Shaking out her hair, she stretched her arms above her head and turned the radio to a rock station. She watched him as he watched her. She could tell he was intrigued.

"You've never met a woman like me, have you?"

"I knew someone similar once. But she was kind of evil."

She prickled a little at that but tried very hard to keep him from seeing her reaction. "What happened?"

"Isn't it bad form to talk about exes on a first date?"

"Lunch was our first date, this is our second. Spill about the me-clone."

He laughed. "Okay. Her name was Gwen; she was a professional thief. Beautiful, intelligent, a bad-ass. My kind of woman, you know? Well, it didn't work out due to the whole professional thief thing. I wanted a woman I could be with. She wanted a man to help her out for a little while. It just didn't work."

"I get that. So, I'm your kind of woman, huh?"

"Definitely." He gave her a rather stunning smile, which was quickly returned by the woman in the passenger seat.

The steakhouse Faith had wanted to visit was one she had read about in some trashy magazine that had been at the airport. Waiting for a cross over flight to L.A. had almost driven her mad; her sanity had survived on Britney Spears news and gossip rags alone. One article had outlined every great to place to eat in a few great cities of the world. Los Angeles had been one.

Her mouth was watering as they were seated. The wait would have been long if Gunn had not had lunch there with a very high power judge earlier in the week. Some of the people he worked with in the city were very big fans of red meat and their illustrious status meant that people thought he was important too. It made it easy to get great tables and short notice reservations. Their orders were taken quickly and Faith was finally able to get the beer she had been too self-conscious to order at the French restaurant.

"This is my kind of place."

"I'll have to remember that. Tell me something else about you. I know about the last few years overseas and that you had a record we had expunged. Tell me something else."

She pushed her finger through the condensation rings that formed on the table under her glass. "Well, my favorite color is blue even though I always wear black. I like dogs; I was never much of a cat person. I'm an Aries, and I like staking vampires and eating chocolate cake." Tipping her glass in his direction she took a drink and smiled.

"That's it, huh? I don't buy it. You're more than all that."

"Not really. No great enigma here."

"Bull. What do you do for fun?"

"Work out, kill evil things."

He laughed slightly, but he was starting to become concerned. "For fun, Faith. Not what you have to do."

"That is my idea of fun. Why, what do you do?" She was starting to feel her nerves rise within her. This man was serious about breaking down her layers, she thought, and that scared her very much. Letting people in wasn't something she considered herself good at.

"I like movies, I play basketball, I swim. I like the ocean."

"Me too." She tried to portray confidence to the man across from her but something was picking at her brain. Not knowing quite what was throwing her off her game; she cleared her throat and straightened in her seat. She was going to show this man what a real woman was, she vowed.

"Tell me about things that make you happy."

Her vow quickly dissipated. "Happy? Let's see…sex makes me happy. At least for a little while. Hiking in the mountains, white water rafting, sky diving made me happy when I tried that. I don't know, a lot of things, I guess."

She was lying through her teeth and he knew it. He doubted that this was a woman who was happy often or for very long. "You are one strange enigma, Faith. I mean, you're obviously the kind of girl that gets what she wants. But you want a lot of things. Things that you aren't sure you want to get."

"Thanks Freud. Let's turn this table on you. Tell me something about you."

He cleared his throat and leaned back in his seat. "My name is Charles Gunn. I started fighting the good fight back before I was old enough to have a driver's permit. I ran with a street crew for a long time before I met up with Angel. I had a sister, but she was turned into a vampire. Angel gave me a job and a new purpose. I got my law degree in about an hour; the info was just kind of booted into my brain. I like my job but I kind of wish I had more free time.

I hate boats but I love the ocean. I used to only play ball before I started watching hockey with Angel. I like that too now. My favorite color is green and I'm a Scorpio. I like dogs, cats freak me out. My favorite city is Las Vegas; I go there whenever I can. I listen to rap, hip-hop and jazz, though the jazz thing is relatively new. I'm a great dancer and sex makes me happy."

She had to laugh. "Okay, okay. At least we're compatible. I swung by Vegas once, I liked it there a lot. We both like dogs and sex and the ocean. What a coincidence."

"That describes about a million other people in this state." He was staring at her expectantly.

"True. Alright…I grew up in Boston. My dad wasn't around after I was born and my mom was a drunk. She still is. I got slapped around a lot and when I got this whole slayer power thing I went a little nuts. I got into trouble, started working for an evil demon guy and then was in a coma for a long time.

Angel saved my life a few times and I owe the big lug. Buffy gets under my skin, but I think I love the little princess. I've traveled since Sunnydale fell into the center of the Earth, and I went to pretty remote places after I broke up with Robin. How about that?"

"Better. I want to know what I'm dealing with right up front. I like you, Faith, especially your brutal honesty." He was smiling as he sipped his drink. This was the kind of woman he could dedicate hours to investigating. He wanted to know just what made her tick.

"You don't know me well enough to know that I'm brutally honest."

"I can tell already," he said as their meals were delivered.

She bit into the first piece of a delectable steak that had been delivered. They ate for a few minutes in silence until Faith looked up and saw Gunn grinning like a Cheshire cat. "What?"

"I'm not normally this strong when I come on to women. I like to take my time. You know, get a synopsis up front and then take a while to think it over. With my last girlfriend, I dated her for a long time before she even saw my apartment. I was pretty closed off with her. That didn't work, as you probably figured out since I'm no longer with her. Let me know if I'm coming on too strong, though, 'cause that might not work out either."

Leaning back, she sipped her beer as she swallowed a piece of steak. "You aren't too strong. Most men pussyfoot around it. They think I'll keep coming back to see if they're interested. The thing is, I don't give a damn if you're interested or not." Her confidence was bolstered, "I'm interested in you and that's all that matters."

"Is that a fact?"

"It is." She smiled ear to ear. She felt like a woman, a powerful woman. She felt a kind of power very different from the kind that allowed her to kill demons and drive wood into vampires. This power was the kind of power that came with confidence and a sense of knowing who she was. She liked this power and was hoping intensely she could hang on to it for a little while longer; it was addictive.

Dinner progressed rather smoothly to desert which progressed quickly to patrol in a cemetery. Faith thought that was the most perfect way to end a date. Her wavering emotions, which turned from self-consciousness to confidence, had started to wane. Confidence was now her overwhelming feeling. Keeping her self control about her and remembering her mistake with Will, she smiled a seductive smile but did nothing else when he dropped her off late in the night. She was going to wait with this one, experience had taught her that was best.