Faith woke up in the middle of the night, feeling like she had to get out. She kicked off the covers and squirmed a little, trying to get comfortable, but finally, she pulled on the pants she had been wearing the day before and went out to the parking lot.

After the stifling heat of the motel room, the cool air outside felt good on Faith's skin. And the loneliness, or maybe the alone-ness, because for the first time in a long time, Faith wasn't lonely. That was a perk of this whole situation, but still. Maybe Faith had been lowkey in love with Buffy for years, but that didn't mean she was prepared for Buffy to love her back. Somehow, now she had what she had been longing for, the air was closing in around her, and even love could suffocate.

Faith sat against the wall next to the door and closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel her surroundings. She had learned some meditation tricks in prison, some of them taught by therapists, and some of them a byproduct of spending weeks of her life trying to calm down with nothing around her but a bunch of angry girls. She used them all now, and eventually she fell asleep leaning against the wall.

Her eyes blinked open to sunlight in the morning. Sunlight and Willow kneeling next to her.

"You okay, Faith?" she asked. "Everything okay with Buffy?"

"What?" Faith blinked a few times. "Oh, yeah. She's fine. I'm just-"

"Not ready?"

Faith shrugged. "I guess."

"You know," Willow said, "Buffy's generally pretty good at loving. You just have to let her."

"I'm trying, Red," Faith said. "But I'll never be good enough for B."

"If you had said that a month ago, I might have agreed," Willow said. "But you've proven yourself."

"How'd I do that?" Faith asked.

"Beyond being a general badass?" Willow's hair fell in her face, and she shook it back. "We made her feel like no one in the world loved her, and you went to her. And I suspect that took a lot from you."

"I could never watch her suffer." Faith looked down at her lap. "Even when it was my fault. She killed me, Red, and I felt bad for her."

"I know it's hard to let her love you," Willow said, "but if you can, it'll be the best part of your life."

Faith looked at Willow and smiled. "Thanks, Red."

Willow stood, looking over her shoulder. Faith followed her gaze to Kennedy, standing by the bus. "And, speaking of love, mine is waiting for me." She looked back at Faith. "We're going to get the girls from the hospital. Want to come?"

Faith shook her head. "B's going to freak if she can't find me when she wakes up."

Willow smiled. "You really do love her."

Before Faith could answer, Willow had walked away. Faith watched Willow kiss Kennedy before getting on the bus. It was such a casual kiss. Could Faith ever do that?

Of course, Willow had been more evil than Faith had ever dreamed possible. If she could look that kind, surely Faith could.

On the other hand, Faith had a longer history of not being able to stay still. And Willow had only gone evil out of love to begin with.

Then again, so had Faith, in a way.

She was overthinking everything. She needed to get out of her mind. She stood and started jogging around the parking lot, trying not to get sweaty. The motel shower was not an experience she cared to repeat more often than necessary.

She managed a couple of laps before one of the motel doors opened and Andrew came out with his camera. Faith sighed and jogged up to him.

"What do you still need a record for?" she asked the lens. "Don't know if you noticed, but we kind of won."

Andrew lowered the camera. "I'm trying to record the aftermath." He put on his storytelling voice. "The battle may have been won, but the war is far from over."

"Actually," Faith said, "that was the war. There might be more wars later, but I'd pretty much call that the war. At this point, you pretty much just look like a creep."

"Faith?" It was Buffy's voice.

"Crap." Faith backed away from Andrew. "I'll lecture you later." She raised her voice. "Over here!"

Buffy jogged over to her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Faith said. "Just dealing."

"Okay. If you want to talk about it, just let me know."

Faith thought back to what Willow had said earlier.

"I'll talk," she said, "when this kid gets his camera out of my face." She pointed her thumb at Andrew.

Buffy glared at Andrew. "You're really on this again?"

"Fine. I'll go see if Dawn will let me record her."

"Record her doing what?" Buffy shrieked.

"Let him go," Faith said.

Andrew scurried away. Faith saw him knocking on the door next to theirs.

"You want to let him do who-knows-what with my sister?" Buffy asked.

"Relax, B. He'll just interview her or something." Faith grinned. "Besides, he's obviously gay."

"What? How do you know?"

"Sixth sense."

Buffy stared.

"It's pretty much obvious," Faith said.

"To you, maybe." Buffy glared, but there was no real hatred behind it. "Anyway, you're not getting off that easy. You said you'd talk to me."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Faith said. She shrugged. "Don't you think we have enough deep conversations?"

"I think it comes with the relationship," Buffy said. "We have to communicate or whatever." She looked down. "Besides, I like talking to you."

"I'm not really cut out for this girlfriend thing," Faith said, picking at her shirt.

"I know," Buffy said. "You've said."

"For once, I'm trying," Faith said. "I'm just not good at it. Round peg, square hole. But Angel says I gotta try new things, and I guess you're not new, but it's close enough, right?"

"Sure."

"Just- I'm sorry if I don't cuddle well."

"You cuddle great," Buffy said. "When you actually let it happen."

"Yeah. That's what I'm sorry for. Not letting it happen."

"It takes time." Buffy reached out and took Faith's hand. "I can wait."

Faith looked down at her hand in Buffy's, then back at Buffy's eyes, looking at her with so much patience.

"When I went bad, the thing that hurt me the most was that you were so good to me," Faith said. "And I didn't let you be."

"Let me now," Buffy said.

Faith opened her mouth to respond, but then she saw a couple of Slayers coming out of their rooms.

"Baby Slayers are waking up," she said, letting go of Buffy's hand.

Buffy turned to look. "Good to see they're alive."

"We've got to get out of this motel today," Faith said. "Even if we just flee to Angel in L. A."

"We can bring it up with Giles when he gets up," Buffy said. "We don't have rooms for the girls Willow and Kennedy are bringing back, anyway."

"I'll call Angel," Faith said. "We should clear it with him before we get a whole troop on board."

"Sounds good."

Faith hesitated, then gave Buffy a quick kiss on the cheek before striding back to her room, ignoring the stares of the baby Slayers. Buffy could deal with them.

When she called Angel Investigations from the motel phone, Fred was the one to pick up. Faith could hear the smile in her voice.

"Angel Investigations, we help the helpless!"

"Hey. It's Faith. Can I talk to Angel?"

"Hi Faith! I'll get him." The line went silent for a moment, and then Faith heard a muffled, "Hey, Wes? Can you get Angel?" And then Fred's voice came back, loud and clear. "Wesley's getting him."

"Thanks."

There were some extraneous noises, and then Angel's voice came over the line.

"Hey, Faith. What's up?"

"We won," Faith said.

"Thought you might. So now you need a place for a bunch of teenagers to crash?"

"Slayers, now," Faith said. "But yeah, that was the idea."

"Slayers?"

"Yeah. Red did a spell. All the Potentials are Slayers now. I'm sure they'll pop up in L. A. soon."

"That explains a few things," Angel said. "We have a couple of girls running loose. I'll let Wes and Gunn know what's going on."

"If you let us crash, we can take those girls off your hands." Faith sighed. "We still haven't talked to the whole gang about it, but Buffy's with me on it. We're not helpless, but we could use some help."

"Okay," Angel said. "We'll get some rooms ready."

"Thanks. And, hey, if you need anything Slain-"

"I'll be sure to ask you."

"Cool." Faith glanced around the room. "Okay, I'm in something of a leader capacity here, so I should probably go. Thanks again."

"No problem. See you soon."

"With any luck." Faith hung up the phone and headed back outside. Lots of people were outside now. Buffy was talking to Renee and Vi, Dawn was sitting on the ground with Chao-Ahn and a book, evidently trying to communicate, and Giles was leaning against a wall, looking around at everyone. Faith wandered over to Giles.

"Hey."

Giles pushed himself off the wall. "Good morning, Faith."

"Angel says we can crash at his hotel for a few days if we need. I figure it's better than this place." Faith waved a hand at the motel. "Probably space to hang out that's not a parking lot."

"Yes, well, that makes a lot of sense," Giles said. "Are you sure we wouldn't be imposing?"

"We can help Angel out," Faith said. "And apparently there are some new Slayers in L. A. that we can take with us to wherever we go next. England, or whatever." She paused, then added, "Buffy's on board."

"We will have to speak with the others, of course," Giles said, "but that would indeed be preferable."

"Maybe we can have a big bus meeting when Willow and Kennedy get back?"

"Big bus meeting it is," Giles agreed.

"Cool." Faith looked around. "I'm going to go tell B."

Giles nodded.

Faith stepped past him to sidle up next to Buffy, just in time to hear Vi ask, "So, what happened next?"

Buffy glanced sideways at Faith. "I'm telling them about homecoming."

"Good times."

"Pretty much." Buffy looked back at Renee and Vi. "So, Cordy totally started yelling at this vampire, and she scared him into leaving the library, and then neither of us won Homecoming Queen. So we didn't really win."

"Yeah, and you barely hung out with me," Faith said, pouting. "After I embarrassed your ex, too."

"It's not like I asked you to," Buffy said.

"But you enjoyed it."

Buffy did that sly smirk, the same one she had had on her face when Faith had suggested using a couple of guys at the dance. "I guess." She shrugged. "He's gay now, anyway."

Faith laughed. "He's not the only one." She looked at Renee and Vi. "Sorry to interrupt Slayer story time."

"You've got stories," Buffy said. "Tell them about the time we had to fight that big Hellmouth thing."

"Oh, that was good," Faith said. "Pretty straightforward, though." To Renee and Vi, she said, "Big monster, we got it. That's the only other major apocalypse I've helped in, though."

"But you've been around for a while, right?" Vi asked.

"Yeah, but I was in a coma, and then I kind of spent some time in jail. Long story."

Buffy cut in. "She went bad."

"Apparently not that long." Faith shrugged. "I'm all better now. But I missed some good fights." She looked at Buffy. "By the way, Angel's cool with us crashing."

"Oh, good," Buffy said.

"Angel?" Renee asked. "Isn't he the vampire?"

"Yeah, he's cool," Faith said. "And his house is wicked big. Like, hotel big."

"Because it's a hotel," Buffy said, rolling her eyes.

"Getting me on a technicality, B." Faith shrugged. "Where are the other Scoobies? Don't we have to do the big group poll thing?"

"Giles is on board," Buffy said. "Willow wasn't opposed, which means Xander's been outvoted. We'll leave in a few hours."

"Works for me," Faith said. "You educating the youth?"

Buffy looked at Renee and Vi. "Just telling them the juicier stuff."

"Oh, like when you-"

Buffy put her hand over Faith's mouth. "Nothing that you could possibly be about to say is good."

Muffled, Faith continued. "Like when you turned into a girl from the 1800's on Halloween because you wanted Angel to like you?"

Buffy sighed and let her hand down.

"Wait, really?" Vi asked.

Faith nodded.

"How'd you even hear about that?" Buffy asked.

"Willow and Xander told me way back when I first got to Sunnydale. Remember, I was pretending I was impressive?"

Buffy rolled her eyes.

Faith addressed the other girls again. "If you want the really embarrassing stories, you have to ask Xander or Willow."

"But don't," Buffy said, glaring at the girls.

Faith shrugged. "Do what you want."

"You're a bad mom," Buffy told her.

"Hey, who said I was the mom?"

"You want to be the dad?"

"I'd settle for weird aunt," Faith decided.

Buffy rolled her eyes.

It was late that night when the bus rolled up to Angel's hotel. They'd had to herd all the girls onto it, and then they'd had to stop for dinner, and then they'd had to deal with traffic going into L. A., so in the end, they got there at eleven. Faith opened the door, and Slayers tumbled in, looking with wide eyes at the space around them. Looking around, Faith had to admit that it was a pretty nice space; Angel was lucky to have it.

No one was behind the desk, and no one was studying in the back, and no one was in the little office to the side. Faith called out a couple of times, and Angel appeared in a doorway.

"Oh, hey, guys."

Faith glanced at Buffy, standing next to her, looking as if the smallest breeze would tip her over. Good thing they were inside. In her peripheral vision, Faith saw Giles, Willow, Xander, Andrew, and the other Slayers fanning out behind her.

"Hey, Angel," she said. "How's it going?"