Chapter 3

Dean fought to keep the Impala straight as it skidded across an ice patch on the Council headquarters' driveway.

Faith and her bags were out of the car before the car had completely stopped.

Dean and Sam piled out of the car. They hadn't known what to expect or even where they were going as they'd made their way across the country. There had been no indication from Faith where they were going except for directions that she called out from that mysterious cell phone of hers.

She hadn't prepared them at all.

Dean remembered their house in Lawrence which hadn't been small by any means. If anything its size and sturdiness was a testament to the stable life they'd lost. That house and what happened in it before his mother's death was Dean's gauge for wealth of things that could be found in life.

So when he saw the sprawling old Victorian mansion, magnificent in the late afternoon light, which from parts of the huge structure that his eyes could take in, was so large it could swallow his old place-house, yard and all-and still have more than enough room for a football field, he was stunned.

'Had Faith come from this? Was this home?' Dean thought as he and Sam took in the lushness and grandeur.

Sam remembered a trip to Hearst Castle that he and Jess took. Normally any thought of her still touched something so raw and painful that he quickly focused on something else. His mind pushed those feelings aside as he looked over this place that looked like that arrogant palace's older, saner and more put together sibling.

Both men lost track of Faith as they pondered the paradox of that rough and tumble woman-whose past, from the few stories Faith told them, contained nothing but loss, poverty and fighting to survive- being connected to a place that oozed a kind of abundance and grace that even Faith wouldn't associate with herself.

Hell, he and Sam wouldn't know about that either. That's why they both liked her. They knew her.

Or so they thought.

By the time they'd shaken off their initial shock Faith was already in the mansion.

Dean and Sam scrambled to catch up. Dean bent down to grab the paper bag that was on the floorboard but it was gone. He checked the back of the car and saw nothing.

He looked at Sam who was carrying most of their stuff and didn't see the bag.

Dean's heart fluttered realizing that Faith had taken it.

The men stepped through the front doors and were met with a sense of déjà vu.

There was that tense circle again. Faith along with one of the women that they'd met years before in L.A., some more of those little girls milling about and added to the group, two men. One was an older man who, to Sam, looked like one of his old professors and the other was the vampire Dean had almost killed in the parking garage.

Kennedy was holding Faith back from attacking the two men as Faith shouted at both of them.

"What the hell? What the hell?" Faith yelled at Giles. "You said he relapsed. That he was fucking dying!" Lunging at Angel she added, "And you! I oughta kick your ass."

The vampire, who Dean could see was fully recovered from whatever was ailing him in L.A., looked guilty. Moving forward Angel gently pried Faith away from Kennedy and surprising Faith, pulled her into a tight hug.

'So this was the 'friend'.' Dean thought scowling.

Faith's discomfort was clear as she was wrapped up in Angel's arms. She continued to fight a little more but eventually gave in to the quiet affection Angel was giving.

They continued to hold each other for a few more seconds before the vampire pulled back. A smirk slowly grew on his face as he said, "And we're glad to see you too." Angel's smirk turned to a genuine smile as gave her arm a light squeeze and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Faith looked up at him, her body still holding some tension and anger, but the expression on her face also showed a sense of relief.

Dean watched, incredulous, as Faith allowed herself to be silently soothed by this stranger-a fucking demon to boot-who she cared for enough that he could calm her in a way that failed for him numerous times before.

Giles spoke up. "I'm sorry about the deception. We felt it necessary unfortunately." He said to Faith.

Giles turned his gaze to Dean and Sam. "Please forgive the spectacle." Giles offered his hand to Sam. "You are?"

"My name is Sam and this is my brother Dean." Sam answered shaking Giles' hand. Giles extended his hand to Dean but Dean was still so captivated by the sight of Faith and Angel that he didn't even notice Giles' attempt an introduction.

Sam nudged Dean with his shoulder but Dean kept staring.

"Uh. Sorry about that." Sam said apologizing. "Dean's been up all night driving. You'll have to forgive him."

Giles gave Sam a sympathetic smile. "That's quite all right. My name is Giles. You've come a long way. I suppose you would like to get some rest?"

Sam looked at Dean who clearly was emotionally and physically spent. He knew something was up between Dean and Faith and whatever was going on had started back in Colorado and had only gotten worse as they made their way east. Taking a load off sounded like a good idea. Maybe they'd have time to wind down and Faith and Dean could get their issue straightened out.

Sam's eyes swept across the room trying to evaluate the trustworthiness of the people in front of him.

Giles didn't look like an ax murderer. He and Dean had already met most of the members of the greeting party before and the new people seemed okay enough. He briefly looked at Angel and Faith, who were still catching up it seemed. Angel was now whispering something in her ear which made Faith give out a quick muffled chuckle.

Looking at their closeness he guessed that meant the vampire was okay too.

But then again Giles had admitted that they'd lied to get them here. And he could feel the hostility pouring off of Dean. Sam briefly worried but feeling the heft of the rifles and rock salt in the bag he was carrying he was reassured.

Turning to Giles, Sam replied, "That'd be all right. Thank you."

Giles smiled, pleased. "Very well." He said. Gesturing to two of the girls standing by, "Kristine. Jasmine. Take them to the east wing please. There are some empty double rooms there."

The two girls nodded and began to walk away.

Sam sidled up to Dean again waving some fingers in his face. After a moment he finally got his brother's attention.

"Hey." Sam said, tossing a sidelong glance at Faith and Angel. "We'll handle it later. Yeah?"

Dean reluctantly moved along with Sam down the hall where the girls were waiting for them.

There was a layer of dust on the bureau thick enough that Faith could easily write her name on the surface of the wood.

The rest of room had been left alone too as though she had died and no one wanted to disturb her memory rather than she'd left on her own.

After Sam and Dean had departed Angel had grabbed her bags and together they'd made their way to her old room.

Angel sat safely in a shadow that fell across the bed and looked at Faith as she paced about the room.

He watched knowingly as Faith tried to get her bearings. She was still hurt by the lie they'd used to bring her here and he knew that she would demand an explanation soon. But for now, she was trying to get reacquainted with her old home.

There were framed posters on the walls. A few black and white photos of what the captions said were different streets in Paris.

Faith recalled bitterly how thoughtless she felt these additions were to the room of a wanted convict. She obviously hadn't had a say in the room's furnishing-there was a writing desk in the room for God's sake-and she would have sworn the posters were an act of revenge if she hadn't been sure that the others hadn't given a damn about hating her enough to concoct some stupid slight like this.

Faith meandered around the room for a few minutes before coming to a stop before a picture of a rain-splashed gleaming cobblestoned alleyway. Peering at an old bicycle in the photograph she let out a small defeated sigh and began to speak.

"You know the first place I went after I got out of here?" Faith asked Angel.

"I don't know." He answered.

"I went to the donut shop down the street and stayed there for about an hour. I got a cup of coffee and a donut and stared out of the window until a couple of cops showed up."

She turned around and looked at Angel with a sad smile. "I freaked out for a second until I realized they couldn't do a thing to me."

Moving closer to Angel she paused and frowned. "But then the horrible thing was that I really didn't want to be there anymore and I couldn't just come back here. I couldn't think of anywhere that I wanted to be ya know?" Angel nodded, understanding perfectly what she was saying.

"All I'd done for years was work my ass off to keep myself alive and freaking sane long enough to get my own life and when I did, I was more scared than I'd been when everyone was makin' the decisions for me. I couldn't even make it out of the damn neighborhood."

Faith threw up her hands and let out an ironic laugh. "Hell, I didn't even eat the donut. I ended up throwing it away!"

"What kind of donut was it?" Angel asked.

"Jelly." Faith replied, taking a seat next to Angel on the bed.

"What did you do after that?"

Faith didn't answer right away. She seemed to pause as if remembering some past pain. She looked down at the floor finally replying, "I got on the bike Giles got me and took off. I got on the first highway out of town and didn't stop riding until I got to Nashville."

"That's pretty far." Angel stated.

"Yeah." Faith said continuing to look at the patterns on the hardwood floor. "Yeah it is."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

Angel took that time to look at the young woman who was smarter and much more mature than she would give herself credit for being. He thought back to those horrible days in Sunnydale when he could have predicted the dangerous end she was headed toward. She reminded him of himself, not as Angelus, but as Liam, drinking and partying and trying to make up for not having something that he wasn't old or experienced enough to define.

He recalled one afternoon back then, staring at her and Buffy in the high school's library. He had let his mind wander and was temporarily taken aback as his demonic voice, which normally was tamed enough by the gypsy magic not to offer commentary, flashed a thought through his mind like a lightning bolt that temporarily illuminates and scars the landscape.

"Faith's weak enough to take." The voice had said.

Angel had been disturbed by the thought at the time but still used that knowledge to trick the girl a few weeks later.

The woman sitting beside him had come a long way from the overwhelmed child he knew back then. Even if, ironically, success meant ending up back where she'd started, just as confused as she'd been when she'd left.

It wasn't always about having the answers so much as being tough enough to honestly face the questions when they came.

Faith coming back here, phony story to lure her there or not, had taken some balls.

The grandfather clock in the hallway sounded that it was 4:30.

Angel sighed. Time was short. He needed to leave and there was still so much to catch up on. She hadn't been there for his recovery and though it hurt him that she wasn't there to give support he did understand why she'd left.

If nothing else he needed to let her know that before she inevitably left again.

"Sorry about the hug out there. I couldn't help it."

Faith raised her head and for the first time since she'd come back she showed those dimples of hers.

"It's okay. Everyone knows you're a big ol' wuss." Faith said around a broad smile.

"Well what can I say? I missed you." Angel said standing up.

"Same here." Faith said before her expression turned to a frown as she saw Angel moving to the door.

"You going?" She asked feeling a little anxious at the prospect of being by herself in this room.

"I have a class." Angel answered.

Faith's eyebrow practically rose to her hairline. "What are you target practice?"

Angel shrugged. "Pretty much. The stakes are blunted but I can give the girls some practice fighting without them having to actually worry about getting eaten."

Angel saw the nervousness blooming on Faith's face. "Giles said that he they were having a meeting at 5:00 in his office." Angel offered. "He's got answers for you."

"Who else is going to be there?"

"The usual suspects I suppose." Angel responded.

Faith shook her head. "B's not going to be happy to see me I'm sure."

"Yeah? Well, go anyway. We needed you here for a reason." Angel encouraged.

With that Angel gave Faith a quick wave goodbye and took his leave.

Faith got up and moved toward the window on the other side of the room. Outside she could see the Impala sitting on the back driveway.

Dean and Sam were somewhere on the other side of the house. Faith chuckled bitterly thinking who she wouldn't want to run into more right now. Dean or Buffy?

She'd quite enough of Buffy's crap in the year she forced herself to stay here. She wasn't looking forward to the reunion. Her relationship with Dean was on the rocks.

She was screwed either way and there was no use running.

Faith turned and looked at the clock radio on the nightstand. She had about 20 minutes. That was more than enough time.

She moved across the room again to her bags. Opening her duffle bag she pulled out the paper bag that she'd stashed inside.

Removing the pregnancy test from the bag, Faith walked into the bedroom's bathroom and shut the door behind her.

"…and we have come a long way. In the coming months we will have much work to do to make this a better place to live for our children. I look forward to working with you to make this happen for our community…"

Dean let loose a long disinterested yawn. Sam had turned on the tv because just curling up in bed wasn't making Dean drowsy. They were both happy when they saw the election coverage on a local news station. Watching political coverage was just the thing to bore Dean and get him some Zs.

Unfortunately in this case, Dean was so wired from all that had happened, watching Jim Paskowitz give a thoroughly underwhelming and long victory speech wasn't even enough to do the trick.

Sam pointed at the tv with the remote. "You want me to turn this off?"

Dean yawned again. "Doesn't matter, I'm still running on adrenaline."

Sam looked at his brother, who like him was lounging, but on the other bed in the room. Giles' tween tour guides had taken them to a room on the other side of the mansion. They seemed to be the only people on this side of the mansion, which Sam thought could mean that despite the gracious welcome they were being put out of the way.

He turned his head back to the television where the councilman-elect was kissing his wife, which reminded Sam of something he'd meant to ask Dean before.

"What is going on with you and Faith? And what was that in the motel? And here? You looked like you were going to hit that guy." Sam asked turning on his side so he could see Dean fully.

Dean sighed. "Dude, I'm not trying to keep anything from you but I just really don't want to talk about it. Things are just kind of turned upside down right now."

That wasn't an answer Sam thought. If Dean didn't want to talk about what was going on that was his business but when whatever troubles he and Faith were having made them have to hightail it halfway across the country, Sam felt he had a right to know.

But pressing wouldn't be good either. Dean could be stubborn as a mule if he felt he was being pressured to do something. Sam gave in.

"You know if you aren't sleeping we could see what's going on around here. I kinda got a vibe from this place." Sam said.

Dean regarded Sam intrigued. "A dangerous kind of vibe?"

"No more of a weird 'Hey why are we being herded to the other side of the house' vibe. I don't know why but I think that that offer of resting up wasn't all entirely friendly. And by the way, it's been like…" Sam checked his watch. "…25 minutes. Where's Faith?" Sam added hoping not to reopen that can of worms.

His fears were dismissed as Dean sat up and looked to the room's door.

"Well to be honest right now I just want a moment of peace. The room's fine with me. But if you want to check things out I'm up for it."

"You sure?" Sam asked seeing the red in Dean's eyes.

"I'm fine man." Dean answered brushing aside Sam's concern. "I was pulling triple shifts when you were just a pup. Let's go."

The men ambled out into the hallway, instantly realizing that they had no idea where to go.

They took a right and a few turns later found themselves in front of a large set of ornately carved wooden doors.

"What do you think is behind this?" Dean asked running a finger along one of the wood carvings.

"Only one way to find out." Sam answered pushing one of the doors open.

The door swept open revealing what had to be the biggest most gorgeous library Sam had ever seen.

Sam let out an admiring whistle as he took in the multistory room. The columns of bookcases shelving hundreds and hundreds of books all along the perimeter of the room broken by the huge windows that let in the perfect amount of light to read by. Two dozen long mahogany reading tables dotted with what Sam was shocked to see were real Tiffany banker's lamps on one side and huge fully stocked bookcases that extended far into another part of the room.

Dean watched as Sam made his way further into the room in a daze.

Sam was in nerd heaven.

Dean wasn't as impressed. He found a seat at one of the tables and played with one of the lamps, waiting for Sam to come off his intellectual contact high.

Minutes passed as Sam browsed the shelves, his eyebrows lifting in surprise as he not only stumbled upon a first edition copy of Moby Dick but on the bookshelf below it something called Mana, Adaro and Figona-A Compendium of Papuan Magics and Their Practical Uses that was about a century and a half older.

Picking up the book Sam tried to be careful, turning the yellowed pages which showed ink drawings of what looked like tribal warriors using different tools.

"I'd put that down if I were you."

Sam and Dean were startled by the new voice.

The voice belonged to a tall young woman who despite her stern warning was smiling at the two men.

"Giles really doesn't like it when you touch the really old books with your bare hands. Believe me, if you haven't heard the 20 minute lecture about the oil on your fingers and 'How you bloody children don't respect history', don't provoke it."

Sam returned the woman's smile and carefully placed the book back on the bookshelf.

Sam apologized shrugging. "Sorry. I just saw all the books and I just…"

"You couldn't help it." The woman finished. "I understand. I like it here too."

The woman walked over to where Dean was sitting. She held out her hand.

"My name is Dawn. What's yours?"

Dean moved to grasp Dawn's hand but the force of a strong yawn made him sit back.

Sam gave a little chuckle. "It's not you. He's just running on empty. I'm Sam. He's Dean."

Dawn shook her head. "Boy, do I know about that." She moved forward past Dean to one of the bookcases along the wall and began looking for a book.

"You came here with Faith right?" She said with her back turned to the two men.

"Yeah." Dean answered. "She didn't tell us about all this though. You all live here?"

Dawn found her book and walked over to the table where Dean was sitting.

"Yes. This is a special school. I'm a student here." She answered motioning Sam over.

Sam took a seat beside her. She was very pretty and Sam could tell Dawn had a keen intellect. When she said she liked it in the library he could tell she really meant it.

He was intrigued. "So what do you study?" Sam asked.

Without batting an eyelash Dawn answered. "Ancient and demon languages. I'm taking course in psychonautics and technology this quarter and I'm finishing a seminar on sigilization."

Neither of the men looked at her like she was crazy. The corner of Dawn's mouth lifted into a smirk. She'd found two fellow travelers.

"You want to see something cool?" She asked Sam.

"Uh sure?" Sam replied wondering what Dawn was doing.

Dawn opened the book and fanned the pages. "There is nothing up my sleeve. You see the pages are blank?"

Sam nodded.

"What book were you looking at?" She asked Sam.

"It was a book on Papua New Guinea and magic. Mana, adore or something. I can't remember the exact title."

"That's okay." Dawn assured him.

Closing the book once more she held the book up to Sam's mouth.

"Okay say the title again."

Looking puzzled Sam looked over Dawn's head to Dean for an explanation. Dean answered with another yawn.

Sam rolled his eyes and looking at the amusement on Dawn's face repeated the incorrect title he'd given her before.

A small whooshing sound came from the book. Dawn opened the book again and showed Sam not only were the pages filled -Sam could see the same ink drawings from before-but the book had shrunk in size down to match the thinner volume he'd held.

Sam was in awe as he took the book from her.

"How did you… That is the coolest thing I've ever seen."

"It's evil magic." Dawn said grinning. She immediately regretted her choice of words seeing the look of horror on Sam's face.

"No. No. I really don't mean evil." She said waving her hands back and forth. "That was a joke. Sort of. The spell's harmless. The people we took it from were evil. But it's all safe. Really."

Sam thought for a second. "Can you conjure up a copy of any book?"

"No just the ones in the library. Although whatever you want will probably be here. There are about 4 million books here."

Sam's jaw dropped. He got over his astonishment and held the closed the book and held it back up to his mouth again. He whispered.

Another whoosh and the book shrunk once more.

Sam handed the book back to Dawn.

Dawn looked at the spine.

"A Wizard of Earthsea?" She said flipping open the book. "Is this like a Harry Potter rip off or something?" Dawn asked skimming the first page.

Sam shook his head and laughed. "Actually this was written long before Harry Potter. And it's better too, in my opinion."

Dawn smiled back at Sam and placed the book between them on the table so they read together.