The incredibly bad day Willow was having at school was about to get a million times worse. Principle Snyder had asked her to show the new girl around. Giles had filled Willow in about her, and it was really quite remarkable that the principle had asked her of all people to help this new girl out. The new girl Faith was the new slayer. Since Buffy died, a new slayer had been chosen.
Willow checked her watch again, and then looked around the school yard. She noticed Xander pull into the parking lot in his new convertible, and feverishly waved him over.
"Xander, hey!" She called to him as he made his way up the steps to the school. He was wearing his usual Hawaii style floral shirt with khaki pants.
"Hey Will," he said nodding his head, a ghost of a smile spreading across his face. "Weren't you supposed to be showing someone around?"
"Yeah," She pointed to her watch. "Faith was supposed to meet me here twenty minutes ago." She complained.
Xander was looking far off to the right, gawking at something. Willow looked to see what the sight was, and felt her own surprise when she saw the girl who was strutting towards them. Long wavy brown hair sprayed around her face matching dark brown eyes spectacularly. A black leather jacket was pulled tightly around her, zipped at the bottom and open the rest of the way up. Black jeans and a red t shirt completed the bad girl look effectively.
"Um, hi!" Willow smiled as the girl approached them. "You must be Faith!" The girl looked boredly at her. Willow became quieter in her discomfort, "I think."
"Yeah I'm Faith." The girl replied, chewing arrogantly on her gum. She nodded her head towards the red headed girl, "You're Willow." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah, I'm Willow, and this is Xander." She gestured to Xander hopefully.
"Hi," He said, still ogling over the girl.
She smiled a cocky grin and nodded her head at him in greeting. "So you're gonna show me around?" She turned her attention back to Willow."
"Yeah, I am." Willow nodded sheepishly and began to lead the way.
The made their way through the various twists and turns of the high school, with Willow pointing out important things like the front office, the cafeteria, Faith's locker, and then the library. Along the way Faith quickly lost the little attention she'd had for Willow and began checking out the male teenagers who responded eagerly with eyes of their own. Faith seemed to make an impression everywhere she went, turning eyes of young boys, envious girls, and even some nervous looking teachers. By the time they made it to her first period class guys were lining up left right and center to get a good look at the new girl.
"Buffy," Spike said tugging on the young girls arm. "You have to feed, this isn't healthy pet." The former slayer was laying face down on Spike's bed, face buried in a pillow and tuning out the master vamp very intentionally. Frustrated, he pulled harder, sliding her towards the edge of the bed. "Buffy come on!" His aggravated tone reached her.
"Can we just get a pizza?" She begged with her face still in the pillow.
Spike sighed. "Listen pet, you know you can't live off pizza. You need to drink blood." At the end of his thin line of patience, he pulled hard on her shoulder and flipped her over in the bed to face him. Her face was patterned with red lines from the pillow, and deep circles had formed beneath her eyes.
"I can't," She said sadly, staring intensely into his eyes.
Spike took her hand and lead her up into the main crypt, and sat her down in a chair while he went to warm up two mugs of blood. Not like she can escape, he though. Bright as the sun out there. It was true; this day in particular had been the brightest he'd ever experienced in Sunnydale. He had started steaming just from standing by the door of the crypt. Not exactly ideal weather for a vampire.
When the blood was as warm as it would get, he carried the mugs over to where Buffy sat, and handed one to her. He sat in a chair across the room and watched her. She looked at the mug for a few seconds, deciding whether she could stomach it or not, and then she looked at him. She was surprised to see him staring right back at her.
"Shouldn't we be asleep right now?" She asked. Her sudden question took him by surprise and he found that he couldn't answer. "I mean, don't vampires usually sleep during the day?" She swirled the blood around in the mug, grimacing at it.
He didn't respond for a second, and then grinned at his own mug and took a swig. "Yeah, but I do recall someone sleeping all night." He smiled warmly at her and she nodded.
She grimaced again at the thick slimy blood, and then decided to drink it like she took her medicine when she was a child. As a little girl her mother had always held her hand when she had to take yucky tasting medicine, or her mother would have to call her father in to hold her down while they forced the drug into her. She learned to take it the easy way. Climbing out of the chair she walked across the stone room to Spike who watched her curiously. He was in awe when she pushed his arms away from his torso and climbed into his lap, careful not to spill the syrupy liquid on him. She pulled his free hand into her lap while he remained motionless, staring at her dumbfounded. She grimaced once more at the stomach turning pig's blood, and then chugged the full mug of warm red salt down.
When she'd finished the last drop, she pulled her head away from the porcelain cup and squeezed her eyes shut. Spike took the mug from her and set it on the floor with his, and then stroked his hand up her arm. Without opening her eyes, she loosened the painful grip she had on his hand – how she hadn't broken his fingers already wasn't clear to her – and turned her head into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her impulsively, and tucked her head beneath his chin.
"That's my girl," he said as he made small circles on her back with his hand. My girl? That's a new one. He thought to himself.
She drew a tense breath, and then pulled herself up, and looked shyly into his penetrating eyes. "I'm sorry." She muttered. She hadn't stopped to think that he might not want her there. He'd just been so kind to her that she'd wanted to be close to him.
He chuckled and stroked her hair, pulling her head back down to him. "S'alright pet, I understand."
She was so glad to have him hold her – to want to hold her – that it was confusing. What would Angel say… She wondered and her smile disappeared abruptly. But she found that she couldn't bring herself to break the contact with the blonde man.
She made swirly patterns on the back of his hand with her index finger, brushing her nail across his skin. Her touch left a burning path, and Spike felt as if he might set fire at the simplest brush of her skin against his.
"Mr. Giles speaking," Giles said into the phone in the library.
"Giles, this is Angel." The voice on the other end said coldly.
"Yes, hello." Giles didn't have time to deal with Angel then. Of course he felt sorry for the poor lad who'd lost his only love, but he had to deal with Faith. The council had decided to put her in his responsibility, and the job had proved harder and harder by the hour. It was still her first day of school there, and she'd already missed two classes. She'd gone to first, but after that she'd disappeared.
"Giles Buffy's back, she's a vampire. But she's gone, she's been gone for hours and I don't know where she went or if she's ok"
Giles cut off Angel's hopeless rambling. "Angel, I'm sorry but I don't understand. Who's missing?" Please don't have said who I think you said, Giles pleaded the powers that be for his ears to have been playing tricks on him.
"Giles, Buffy is back." His voice sounded strangled.
If what Angel was saying were true, then Buffy could have been anywhere, dust now from the afternoon sunlight. "I'll find her Angel, don't worry." He hung up the phone and grabbed his jacket. Don't worry, he humored himself with the thought of worrying about whether she was dust or not, when there were clearly more important matters on the subject. There was an ex slayer turned vampire running around Sunnydale, who knew if she were killing? Giles prayed he could get her soul anchored to her, to save the girl who felt like a daughter to him. Half of him was whispering for him to stake her, and the other was shouting to find her and get her hidden from the evils that could harm her. He'd decide on what to do when he found her.