Loss of Faith

Chapter 15: Seeing is Believing

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters contained within.

That would be Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc….

Xander's POV –

I pull up to Faith's place and see that she left her bike sitting out front last night when she got back from patrol. The way she went crazy over getting it, you would think she'd take the time to put it in the garage. Well, whoever said that Faith was consistent? I walk up to the door and ring the bell. I can hear the deep chimes ringing through the house. For some reason I expect to see a little hunchback guy running around screaming 'the bells, the bells!'. You know, I really need to cut down on my Saturday morning cartoon watching.

I'm just reaching out to hit the door bell again when the door swings open. Faith is standing there in her leather pants and black tee shirt giving me a wicked smile. "Good Evenink," she says. Then she busts out laughing. I don't really get the joke but smile along with her anyway. Like I said, Faith can be a little strange some times.

She steps back from the door and I walk in saying, "Hey Faith. Have you been hitting the sauce a little early tonight?"

She walks past me heading for the living room and says over her shoulder, "Nah, Xand. I'm just in a wicked good mood." She then turns around to me while sorta gesturing into the room further and says, "You remember B, right?"

I look to where she's motioning and standing there is Buffy. "Hey Xand, long time no see," she says. That's when my legs give out and I sit down on the floor. Hard.

The two of them are standing there laughing their asses off at me while all I can do is sit here with my jaw hanging open and flapping in the breeze. My pals…, the Bitches.

"What, you're not even going to say hello to me?" Buffy asks with a fake pout.

Faith walks over behind Buff and puts her arms around her. Looking over Buffy's shoulder at me she says, "I dunno B, I think we broke him." Then the two of them start laughing again. Yep, they can be Bitches alright.

I laugh a little at myself and am starting to get my head together, so I stand up slowly while saying to them, "I'm glad you two find me so amusing. Why not give me a heart attack next time? Then there'd be only one of us here walking around with a heartbeat."

"Don't be like that Xander," Buffy says with her pout back in place. "I wanted to break it to you slowly, but Faith thought it would be funny to surprise you. It actually was, kinda."

"Yeah, Hardy, Har, Har, Har," I tell them as I go over to the couch and sit down.

"Oh relax, Xand. It was only a joke," Faith says. "Tell ya what, we'll make it up to ya. What'll it take for ya to forgive us?"

"I'm thinking something that has to do with about a gallon of baby oil…..," I say with a smirk.

Buffy says, "I don't think so."

"Yea, that show was earlier and you missed it," Faith tells me with a smile. "Too bad. How bout something to drink instead?"

Great, now I'm really in pain. "That's not the same, but since it's the best I'm going to get I'll take it," I say.

As Faith goes to the kitchen to get my drink I look over at Buffy. "You know," I start to say, "I kinda thought that you were still around Buff. The way Shannon had described the vampire that was keeping the demon population down sounded like you. But it still shocked the shit out of me to see you standing there. Guess seeing is really believing."

"Shannon?" Buffy asks.

"Yeah, she's the new slayer that was called. She's been staying with your mom," I tell her. "By the way, how come you can stand there in the sun and you're not making with the toast impression?" I had thought that Faith said the gem of Amara was lost in the ocean when she threw it in.

Buffy holds up her hand and I can see the green gemmed ring on her finger. "A little present that Faith gave me. After Giles pulled her out of the water, I went back for it."

Faith comes back in and hands me my drink. "So Xand, this was my news, is yours gonna top it?"

"I don't think anything can top the fact that Buffy is alive, sort of," I smile over at Buff to show I'm teasing, "and standing here. But, before I left to call you, Shannon got a call from the Council."

"What did they want?" Buffy asks and I can see that she is not happy. She didn't think much of them when she was the slayer so I'm pretty sure her opinion didn't improve with her turning vamp.

"Wish I knew," I tell them. "I could only hear part of Shannon's side of the call. It sounds like they're going to send her something though. It may be something to help Shannon with capturing Faith."

"Capturing Faith," Buffy yells. "What the hell do they want to capture Faith for?"

I turn to Faith and say, "You haven't told her about Shannon having the whole 'Go team Council' thing going on?"

"Not yet," she answers looking down at her hands, "We've been kinda busy. Ya know, catching up and shit."

"Yeah, catching up? Is that what you kids are calling it these days? Nice way to put it," I say.

"Okay Buff, long story short," I tell her, "Shannon's been with the Council for a long time. They convinced her that Faith is psycho and a danger to everyone. One of her directives is that if she finds Faith, to subdue her and send her back to the Council for 'reconditioning'. We tried to tell Shannon that Faith wasn't like the Council said and even tried to get her to meet Faith to make up her own mind." I've seen the look that's shining out of Buffy's eyes before. It usually means something is in for a whole lot of pain.

Buffy is standing there with her arms folded and one leg cocked. It's her 'I'm really getting pissed' stance. "And how did that idea work out?" She asks.

I get up to move behind the couch. I want something between me and Buff when I tell her the next part. "Weeeelllllll," I say, "Shannon kind of tackled Faith through a window about two minutes after she first laid eyes on her." Then I duck down behind the couch and wait for the explosion.

I don't hear anything breaking so I chance a look up. Buffy is headed for the front door and Faith just caught up to her. Faith grabs her by the arm and says, "Whoa, there princess. Where do ya think you're going?"

"I want to have a talk with Little Miss 'Throw My Girlfriend Through the Window'. That's where," Buffy tells her.

Faith gives Buffy a smile and says, "You'd do that for me?"

"Damn right, now if you'll let me go I should be back in no time," Buff answers her.

"Easy there killer," Faith says with a laugh. "I appreciate you defendin my honor and all, but I already took care of it."

Buffy looks back over to me and I tell her, "She's right, Buff. Shannon attacked Faith two minutes after seeing her, and Faith put her to sleep with a choke hold about one minute after that. She laid her out so well Shannon didn't wake up for a couple hours."

Buffy looked back at Faith and gave her a grin. "That's my girl," she said.

The two of them came back over to the couch and sat down. I plopped down in a chair next to them and said, "So the deal is that Giles wants us to patrol the west side of town while Shannon takes the east side. Us being me and Faith cause, you know, he doesn't know about Buff being around. He figures that with two slayers patrolling separate areas, we'll be able to track down the rogue vamp in no time. Hey, I guess he was right. Here you are!" Ha, now it's my turn to laugh at them.

"Very funny, Xander," Buffy says to me. What? I thought it was funny. Funnier than the joke they played on me when I got here anyway.

"So since we know there is no 'rogue vampire' to try and hunt down, what do we do? Just a regular patrol?" I ask. "Or do you guys want to just hang out here and give that baby oil thing a try?"

Buffy swats me on my arm while Faith just laughs at me and says, "We go on patrol Xand. There's still demons out there that need to have their asses kicked and ya know I get grumpy if I don't get my slay on."

"Yeah," Buffy adds with a little grin, "and maybe if I'm lucky I'll run into the newbie so we can chat."

"There should be no chance of that Buff," I tell her. "Giles told Shannon to stick to the east side of town and she's pretty use to obeying orders. Especially from Council appointed Watchers."

"I can always dream can't I," she answers me back.

'Just what I needed' I thought. Faith was bad enough with the crazy shit she gets up to, now Buffy is back and wants to play. This may turn out to be an interesting night.