Summary: This is a sequel to my story A Creature I Don't Know which can be found here: s/8467907/1/A-Creature-I-Dont-Know
A/N: I strongly recommend a good understanding of season 5 to follow this: Blood Ties especially for this update.
Disclaimer:Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, 20th Century Fox, UPN and WB Television Networks own the television shows, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Dark Horse and IDW own the Comics. No copyright infringement is intended, no money is being earned by myself. The title of each chapter, and the story as a whole, come from K's Choice songs/Album titles. (Given that I had soundtrack for the first I thought I should have one for the second).
Thank you all for your kind words and support for my last story. I hope you enjoy my continuation of it. I would love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. Many thanks.
11. Home
They lay together in bed, the sheets - like their clothes before - had be kicked aside and discarded. Now it was simply the two of them in bed.
Buffy knew she'd been close to losing the girl besides her, through both her own actions and those of the Council. The relationship was hard, it was always going to be hard. All relationships were. They had to be if they were to mean anything.
Faith had put her life on the line to help Buffy and Dawn all while she had her own demons to face. Faith could have run, she could have fled, but instead she opted to stay. She stayed to face her fate. She stayed to help Buffy.
She realised that Faith wasn't the girl that she once knew. Faith had grown up and put herself, put her heart, on the line for Buffy.
She had sat back and almost challenged Faith to turn and go, but Faith hadn't. Faith, unlike her father and Angel before, had stayed. Faith loved her, she should love her back.
She had to allow herself to open herself up to her. She hated it when Xander was right.
"You got burned with Angel. Then Riley shows up-"
He'd come with her to drop Giles and Faith off at the airport. The drive back had been silent. Until now.
"I know the story, Xander."
"But you missed the point." He told her with a shake of his head. "You shut down, Buffy. You're still treating Faith like she's Riley; like she's the rebound! Faith's the one who comes along once in a lifetime. She's never held back with you - she's risked it all - and you're about to let her go? Why, because she's got the nerve to find this hard too?"
She known him for five years. She'd always thought of Xander as the boy she'd gone to school with. She'd never noticed that he'd become a man.
"If what she needs from you just isn't there - for God's sake, let her go. But if it is? If you can go deeper... Let her get to know that raw, unguarded heart you tried to put away... Maybe you'd better risk something too. Cause either this is the end - or maybe it's the beginning. It's up to you."
She lay next to Faith, the girl laying peacefully besides her, and gently traced the scar across her stomach. So many times she'd pushed her away and yet every time she'd stayed.
"The guys took the news pretty well." Buffy said, unsure if she was talking to Faith or simply speaking aloud.
"Huh?"
"Dawn." Buffy clarified. "They took the news pretty well."
Faith raised herself up onto her elbows and looked at the girl besides her. She kissed her softly on the lips and simply smiled back at her.
"No, they didn't." Faith corrected. "They will, but they're not there yet. Its cute that you think they did though!" Buffy shot her a warning look. "Change of subject?"
"Good idea."
"Birthday party?"
"Bad idea."
"Come on," Faith smiled at her, relaxing once more, "Red's right, you need a party to just party."
"Find the fun?"
"Find the fun!" Faith nodded.
"Parties and me don't end well." Buffy warned her.
Faith was pleased that Buffy did as instructed and not only feigned surprise at the party she did not want but also found a little fun. She suspected it was more to do with the presents though.
As the party drew on though, Faith found herself watching Dawn more and more, or rather watching her friend's reactions to Dawn. For months she'd worried about this moment; all those fake memories, all those secrets, piled into a hormonal teenager. She'd always thought being Called was tough, but at least her life was real. Dawn didn't have such a luxury and now more people knew that the sooner she would too.
She stood behind the young girl as she listened to Giles, Buffy and her mother talk in the kitchen.
"Glory." She told her causing Dawn to jump.
"That woman that was here the other day?" Faith nodded. "She scare you?"
"Nothing scares me." Dawn raised her eyebrows. "Alright," Faith conceded, "the Council still has the power to terrify me."
"Yeah," she rolled her eyes, "because we all know how terrifying British people are." Dawn finished by folding her arms across her.
"Dawn?" Buffy called out from the kitchen. "What are you doing? Party getting slow out there?"
"Faith's trying to tell me how scary the British are." Dawn sighed, walking through and picking up a stack of plates. "One moment she's talking to me about that Glory girl-" Buffy looked over her sister and tried to tell Faith off with her eyes alone. "-and the next she's treating me like a kid again."
"Faith shouldn't have been telling you about Glory." Buffy sighed. "But British people can be scary." She thought for a moment. "And mean!"
"May I say anything in our defence?" Giles asked.
"Whatever." Dawn complained walking past Faith and into the living room.
Buffy waited barely a second to pass before she was besides Faith.
"What were you telling her about?"
"I was explaining what she was listening in on." Faith told her. "Kid got a set of ears on her."
"I'm not a kid!"
"See!" Faith pointed in the direction of Dawn's call.
"I'm so glad Buffy's 20 now and I only have the one teenager to deal with!" Joyce sighed, heading through the door in pursuit of her youngest.
"What did you tell her?" Buffy asked again with more urgency.
"Look," Faith replied in the same tone, "she was listening in and I told her that you were talking about Glory." She raised her hands in exasperation. "She's already met the bitch, you can't keep hiding her from her."
"I do hope you're referring to Glory as the bitch in that sentence." Buffy warned just as they heard Dawn starting to kick off in the next room. "Say nothing." Buffy told Faith as she too went in search of her sister.
Faith looked to Giles stood mutely, a cup of tea held close to his chest, in the corner.
"Don't look at me I'm an only child." He told her.
She opened her mouth to reply but closed it again as she listened to Dawn scream, shout and eventually storm upstairs.
"So glad that I am too!"
Giles crossed the room and put an arm around her, steering her back into the living room.
"Don't tell me that you're jealous that Buffy got the sister and you didn't?"
Faith simply shrugged and rejoined the others.
After a while of Dawn's continued absence Faith asked if someone should check in on her. Buffy shook her head and picked up the shell framed picture Dawn had given her. She was telling Faith about when they first moved to Sunnydale and that Dawn's anger at leaving their father had her confined to her room for a week. She was explaining about how Dawn even took her meals upstairs when Tara cut her off.
"Is this blood?" Dawn asked the room as she re-emerged, a knife dangling limply from her hand as blood fell from her arms.
"Dawn!" Joyce was holding her in an instant. While Buffy took the knife from her hand and questioned her actions.
"It's blood, isn't it?" Dawn asked. "It can't be me. I'm not a Key. I'm not a thing." her words were bitter and confused. They came out slowly and so quietly but everyone in the room heard each one.
"Sweetie, no," Joyce tried to find the words as her youngest child started to cry, "what is this all..."
"What am I?" She asked. "Am I real? Am I anything?"
Buffy shepherded everyone out of the house as her mother helped Dawn upstairs. She thanked everyone for coming and their offers of support but explained that Dawn needed to be with her family now. She shot a sorrowful look to her friends and promised to try a party for her 21st.
After she closed the door to the outside world she climbed the stairs and found her mother combing her sisters hair with her fingers. She couldn't see Dawn's arms but knowing her mother, they would already have been cleaned and treated.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Dawn asked on hearing her sister enter the room.
"We were going to. We just."
"We thought it would be better to wait until you were older." Joyce continued after Buffy faltered.
"How old am I now?"
"Fourteen." Her mother responded. "You know that."
"No." Dawn turned to face them, "the monks. When did they...?"
"Six months ago." Buffy told her eventually.
"I've only been alive for six months?"
"No, honey. You've been alive longer than that to us."
"You don't know that." She shot back at her mother. "You don't know anything! I'm a Key - everything about me's just made up."
"Dawn, Mom and I know what we feel. I know I care about you, know I worry-"
"You worry 'cause you have to - I'm your job." Dawn scoffed back. "'Protect the Key' right?"
"No, I worry because my sister is cutting herself-"
"Yeah?" Dawn laughed bitterly. "How do you know? Maybe it's just another fake memory. From my fake family."
"Honey." Joyce reached out to touch Dawn. Dawn withdrew, out of reach. Buffy and Joyce could only stare at her as she turned away from them.
"Get out."
"Dawn."
"Get out! GET OUT! GET OUT!"
Faith slipped out of school and headed towards Buffy's house. She knew that she and the Scoobies would at the Magic Box trying to fathom how Dawn had finally learned the truth. Faith had contemplated joining them except she knew that Giles would just send her straight back to school and the fact that she could be of greater use elsewhere.
She climbed the veranda and pushed up the slash window to her room. She contemplated climbing straight through, but the death stare she received from Dawn made her think twice.
"May I?" She tried, not too hopeful of the results. "Look," she tried again after Dawn had folded her arms across her chest, "I'm wearing a skirt here, if one of your neighbours starts mowing their lawn they're going to get a pretty good view."
"Whatever."
"Good," Faith smiled at her as she crossed into her room, "because I was pretty much going to come in anyway."
"What do you want?" Dawn asked her as she watched the girl sit, and try to get comfortable, on the floor.
"I grew up in care. Buffy ever tell you that?"
"So?"
"My mom was a deadbeat, my dad ran off - or died depending on who's story you're listening to - and I was presented to this crappy foster family to bring up."
"So?" She repeated.
"I would have killed to have a mom and a sister who loved me."
"They love me because they have to, cause of the-"
"The monks?" Faith shook her head. "Family and love aren't the same thing. You were given to a family, they chose to love you."
Dawn got up off her bed and stood staring down at the girl on her floor.
"You're the real slayer now, how come I wasn't given to you?"
"Cause my family wouldn't have loved you. Hell," Faith thought about it for a while, "given the childhood I had, I probably wouldn't of either."
"That's it?" Dawn sighed. "That's your big speech to make me feel better about being fake?"
"Hey!" Faith stood up so she was looking down on the girl. "I'm missed Bio for this. I'm going to get detention."
"Oooh bad girl." She mocked. "I got suspended today."
Faith turned around and headed back for the window. "Just think about it, kid." She told her as she started to climb down.
"I'm not a kid! I'm barely six months old." Dawn yelled back out to her.
"Yeah," Faith sighed to herself as she dusted herself off at the foot of the wall, "but if I told you to stop whining like a baby you'd just cut yourself again."
And she headed back to school.
Faith told Buffy everything that she'd said to Dawn in the afternoon, while the looked for the girl – even the question of why Dawn had been sent to Buffy rather than to herself. She wasn't sure how much Buffy was taking in though, her mind preoccupied with the search for her sister. When nobody – not even Spike – had found the girl, Buffy gathered them all back together and Buffy started to consider other options.
It was at the hospital where they found her.
"Get away from my sister." Buffy warned as the group of them stormed the abandoned room.
"Oh hey!" Glory smiled broadly at her. "We were just talking about you!"
"Conversation's over, Hellbitch." She told her as she attacked with a ferocity and a darkness that Faith had seldom seen.
When Buffy managed to shove Glory into one of the many light boxes on the wall, sending shattered glass everywhere, Faith grabbed Dawn and tucked her under a table. She noted a small shard embedded in the girl's palm and a trickle of blood starting to form. There was nothing she could do for her now though as she went to help Buffy and Spike fight.
"I thought you said this skank was tough?" Spike asked, an arm across her neck as Buffy hit her.
Glory shook him free and sent him crashing into the wall.
"If he wakes up," Glory told Buffy as she started to hit back, "tell your boyfriend to watch his mouth."
"He's! Not! Her! BOYFRIEND!" Faith told her, grabbing the broken lightbox from the wall and bringing it down on her head.
"Oh." Glory suddenly stopped, smiled and pointed between the two Slayers. "I get it now. Don't understand it." She said, knocking Faith into the same wall as Spike and crashing down on top of him. "but I get it!"
Faith pulled herself to a stand and positioned herself in front of Willow and Tara as they started to chant, protecting them while Buffy continued to fight Glory.
"Giles, now!" Buffy commanded him to fire his crossbow, but the bold simply bounced off Glory's chest.
"Oh, please! Like that's gonna-" Xander cut her off mid-sentence by whacking her across the back of the head with his crowbar. "Hey!" She told him, snatching the metal from his hand. "Watch the hair!" she told him before sending him into Giles. "Okay! Time to start the dyin'!" She announced throwing the crowbar, like a spear, towards Dawn huddled under the table.
"Dawn!" Buffy stood in the way protectively and took the blow. She fell to the floor as she tried to remove the bar from her shoulder.
Dawn instinctively ran to Buffy, but Faith grabbed her and pulled her back and out of the way. She backed the pair of them into a corner and out of the way. She watched Willow and Tara continue chanting and hoped whatever they were going to do was going to happen soon.
"Look what you did to my dress, you little-"
"Discede!" Willow interrupted and clapped her hands together causing Glory to disappear. She dropped to her knees as her right hand went to the blood coming from her nose.
"What did you do to her?" Buffy asked as she took Dawn from Faith.
"Teleportation spell." Willow managed weakly as Tara tended to her. "Still working out the kinks."
"Where did you send her?" Faith asked looking around the room.
"Don't know. That's one of the kinks."
But Buffy had stopped listening, all her attention was firmly back on her sister.
"Are you all right?! Did she hurt you?"
"Why do you care?" Dawn asked her, as if suddenly remembering her hatred.
"Because I love you." Buffy told her, not rising to the bile. "You're my sister."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are. Look." She took Dawn's bleeding palm and removed the small piece of glass from it. She then pressed her own palm against her shoulder and held their hands together. "Blood. Summers' blood. Just like mine." Buffy told her as her blood met with Dawn's. "It doesn't matter how you got here or where you came from. You are my sister – there's no way you could annoy me as much if you weren't."
Dawn relaxed, her anger and hurt evaporating with every passing moment and simply hugged her sister. "I was so scared." She admitted into her ear.
"Me too." Buffy told her.
"Wait!" Dawn pushed her away. "Ben! He-" she looked around the room but she just looked confused. "He was here. He was trying to help me, but then he… I think he might have left before Glory came. I – I can't remember."
"Its okay." Faith laid a hand on her shoulder. "We'll send him a muffin basket."
"And thank him the next time we see him." Buffy finished, scooping her sister up and starting to walk out of the room. "We'd better get back. Mom's freaking out." She explained as she lead the way out of the hospital.
I met the artist who's currently drawing for the Angel & Faith comic series - she's lovely. Check out her work - Rebekah Isaacs.
Many thanks, Circus.