Chapter 11.

Life went on. Oz and Willow made up and got back together. Though, Oz didn't patrol as much with the group when Xander was there, despite Xander clearly being with Faith. Cordelia distanced herself from the group entirely and quickly and viciously re-asserted her place at the top of the social ladder by bringing Harmony to tears in the lunch room.

Faith kept a close watch on Cordelia to see if Anyanka showed up even if she wasn't sure what she'd do if she did. Until Cordelia confronted her. It was surprising just how intimidating Cordy could be when she put her mind to it. Arms crossed – a look of pure hatred on her features. Faith had to remind herself that she was a fucking Slayer for just a moment.

"What are you doing?" Cordelia snapped. "It's not enough to take my boyfriend, now you're stalking me?"

"This isn't about Xander." Faith watched as Cordy flinched a bit at the sound of his name. "Diana said that she got a threat that someone was going to sic a demon on the leader of the school. We weren't sure if that was you or Snyder, but I'm willing to let Snyder twist."

"But not me?" Cordelia lifted a perfectly manicured brow.

"I know you don't like me. But the feeling isn't mutual. Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. This demon looks completely human until it attacks. If any new students approach you, trying to be friends, you come get me. You promise that, and I'll back off." Faith offered.

"Why can't I just go to Buffy instead of the Slutty Slayer?" Cordelia challenged.

Faith had been called worse. "I suppose I should give them a heads-up. I've already fought this type of demon though. I know what to look for. I was hoping to just take care of it without anybody noticing."

"Like how you took care of my boyfriend without anybody noticing?" Cordy shot.

"The boyfriend you hadn't even had the courage to tell your folks about? Besides, you broke up with him." Faith fired right back.

"And you've told your folks about him?" Cordelia backed off just a hair. She didn't have an answer for the part about breaking up with him.

"Legally, Double D is my guardian. And yes, she knows about him. Does that answer your question?" Faith finished.

"Fine. If I see anyone new, I'll let Buffy know." Cordelia tried to shoulder past Faith even though there was plenty of room in the hallway. Faith decided not to let her and simply didn't move aside. The look on Cordy's face when she bounced off the immovable object that was a Slayer was priceless. Faith went to call home and let DD deal with letting Giles know about vengeance demons and how to deal with them.

"Faith?" DD called from the kitchen as the door swung open. She was hanging Christmas decorations around the house. Surprisingly it had been Faith who had insisted saying that she had always had something, even if she'd had to shoplift the lights.

"Just me." Faith replied.

"Oh good. I talked to Mr. Giles and he informed me that everyone is invited to a Christmas party at the Summers' residence. Apparently Joyce wants to thank all of Buffy's friends again." Diana said.

"Huh." Was all Faith replied. That was slightly different than originally happened. Or maybe everyone had been invited and only she showed up.

"Anyway. Here's some money so you can get your friends some reasonable gifts." DD stuffed several hundred dollar bills into Faith's hand.

"Really?"

"Of course." the watcher assured her. "I'm your guardian as well as your watcher. I realize you are more or less an adult, but I assure you your friends' gifts to you will likely also be bought with money from their parents."

Those words made Faith flash to Xander, whose parents certainly weren't about to give him any money. "Have you seen Xander?"

"I already gave him his allowance." Diana smiled that Faith thought of him first. "He took a bit of convincing. I dare say I've never had so much trouble trying to give a person money before."

Faith swallowed. "Yeah. He doesn't like charity." Then again, she didn't care for it much either. It was easier to think of this as the first of many paychecks the council would be issuing her. Eventually. She started to climb the stairs to their room then looked back. "Thank you."

Boring days of school were only tolerable because she got to spend most of her time with Xander. It was fun learning about this new Xander. The ways he differed from the one she knew and teaching him all about her. Including a quickie or two in the boys' room. Xander, in return, redoubled his efforts in training. She got to spar with Buffy and got to train with Xander, Willow, and Oz. Oz being willing to speak to Xander again was a major step forward in their relationship. And it possibly had something to do with Xander being very clearly smitten with Faith. Or just the fact that he was back together with Willow and was letting everything get back to normal.

They had never really had this stage of their relationship the first time. She had kicked him to the curb too quickly and then it had been a slow building of trust as adults until they were ready. It was nice, at first, the way he fawned over her. Though she was already counting down the days to the more comfortable relationship they had built the first time. She was doing everything in her power to build that trust they'd had the first time. Including fighting side by side as much as possible. It was the way they'd done things the first time, and much easier on both their egos than being vulnerable and saying some bullshit like 'I love you'.

So it came as a complete shock to her a few days before Christmas when he actually said, "I love you." just as he came. Which totally ruined her own building orgasm.

She pushed him off herself rather unceremoniously.

"What?" Xander looked confused.

Faith was already up and putting on some running pants, debating with herself whether she should answer him or just smack him. She threw on a jog-bra then ran out the door without a word.

It was a warm night even for California for being so close to Christmas. Which was exactly as she remembered. And she ran.

It wasn't until she ran across a couple vamps attacking a couple that she realized she'd left without even a stake. But that was okay, because she really wanted- no, needed to do a spot of violence right now. She set upon the vamps with her bare fists and yelled at the humans to run away. Except they didn't run away. They vamped out as well. And instead of a 2-on-1 fight she would easily win, even unarmed, it was suddenly and unexpectedly 4-on-1. Not something she could easily win without a stake. Which was when decades of experience really came in handy. First, in simply not panicking. And secondly, in forming a simple plan. She side kicked one vamp off his feet while throwing the other into his new friends. She then turned tail and ran; hurdling the vamp she kicked as she ran.

As she ran down alleys she knew like the back of her hand, she swept her eyes around for a piece of wood. There was nothing. Not a stray broom or even the ubiquitous pallets that always seemed to clutter up these alleys. TRAP! her mind screamed at her. The subterfuge plus the lack of wood could only mean trap. At the next intersection one path was clear, the other blocked by two vamps already in game face. She charged the vamps hoping they were just there to herd her to the actual trap. The look of surprise on their faces told her she guessed right. She aimed at one vamp and pulled back her fist. Instead of striking though, she baseball-slid under his answering attack. She was up and running again before they could even turn.

One more turn and she was back on open ground. She barely glanced each way before crossing the street and hopping the fence to the cemetery. A cemetery that might hold more vamps, but also had trees. Lots and lots of trees.

One large branch became two large stakes when she broke it in half. It wasn't much, but it was something. She turned back to see if she couldn't make it back to the alley and bottle up her opponents but the first two were already out and crossing the street.

Xander dressed as quickly as he could but he was barely to the door of the bedroom when the front door slammed. DD looked up at him as she came out of her room still throwing on a robe. He saw her slip what looked like a gun into the pocket. "What happened?" she asked.

"I think I screwed up. I told her I loved her." Xander said. Confusion evident on his face.

The wince he received even from DeeDee, told him that he had really screwed up. "Come on down. I'll make some cocoa."

Cocoa ready, DD began. "So, tell me what happened."

"Uh, we were, uh..."

"Having sex." DD filled in kindly. Living with Faith quickly rewriting what she had qualms talking about.

Xander swallowed. Admitting that to an adult was just plain uncomfortable. "And I told her I loved her. She threw me off her, put on some running clothes, and ran out the door."

Diana sighed. "I'm going to be making some guesses based on what I know about Faith and other women who've had upbringings similar to hers. But what it comes down to is that a lot of people have likely told Faith they love her. Mostly men. They've taken what they wanted and then they left. It hasn't just leached the meaning out of the words. It's given them a connotation to her that's completely opposite from what I'm sure you meant."

"Oh god." Xander put his head in his hands.

"There, there now." Diana put a hand on his arm. "All is not lost. I know Faith loves you. True love, not the twisted kind she grew up with. And she knows how you really feel too. She's just unlikely to ever say the words with any meaning. Right now, she's probably running off some anger at people who aren't you who've said those words. She didn't say where she was going, did she?"

Xander shook his head.

"Well, then the best thing we can do is sit and wait for her then. She is, after all, a Slayer. She can take care of herself."

Some part of Faith really wished that Xander had followed her on her run. Because she could really use the backup right about now. She would yell at him, sure. Maybe even smack him. But then she'd give him the best damn blowjob he'd ever had after they survived.

She'd gotten the first of the two vamps that had initially exited the alley. But it had been like trying to pound a nail into concrete using only her hand. The broken branch she was using was beyond dull. A small part of her mind realized she'd gotten used to using only as much energy as was required to drive home a sharpened stake or spear. The second vamp got her full Slayer power. The branch went in, but she was unable to pull it back out again before the demon dusted and took her weapon with him. She looked up to see the first four vampires exiting the alley and she made a split second decision between running and fighting.

Armed with a new branch she waited for her new opponents to approach. And regretted her decision not to run. These guys weren't like the first two who were simply your average vamp. Your average minion would just charge into a fight and fought better by themselves than with others as they tended to get in each other's way. These guys weren't charging in, instead they were spreading out and surrounding her purposefully.

Faith ignored the first feint and blocked the first two attacks, but took a boot to the gut anyways. She spun and drove the vamps back to try again. Again and again they attacked. Faith did a good job of keeping them at bay, but it was a losing battle. Every time she counter attacked, that one would retreat while the others attacked from the sides and behind. These guys were well trained. And worse than anything, they were patient. They weren't charging in, teeth bared. They were wearing her down. Keeping the fight up for a long time was tiring her more than it was tiring them. Already she was soaked in sweat, her breath coming raggedly. They didn't need to breathe or sweat; the longer this fight went on the greater their advantage grew. And it was still early in the night. There was no way she could outlast them on one of the longest nights of the year.

She started to regret running away when Xander had said- ...those words. She'd already known it. She didn't have to hear it 20 times a day like some insecure bimbo. And now she was going to leave him. Again. She'd done all she could for him, apparently. Hopefully he would be able to move on without her. Hell, maybe B would wise up and realize what she was missing out on with her gone. Probably not. But at the very least, she'd saved him from having a vengeance demon for an ex-girlfriend. His life would almost certainly be better for it.

She readied herself for another go. This time she was taking at least two of them down with her. No matter the cost. She had to act before she wast too exhausted to do anything. She studied her opponents. She ignored the one that was feinting and jumped towards the one that was kicking instead, knowing he wouldn't be able to jump back as quickly as the others. She tackled him and buried her stake in him. She abandoned that weapon as it dusted with the vamp and fell to her hands and knees. Before she could turn and stand up, she was tackled herself by a vampire. He got on top of her and spread her arms wide and pinned them there. He went in to bite her neck and she headbutted him. Don't let anyone tell you that headbutting someone doesn't hurt. It hurts like hell. But if you catch the other guy's nose or mouth like Faith did, it tends to hurt them more. The vampire cried out in pain and sat up but didn't get off or let go of her arms.

"You're going to pay for that, bitch. The Mayor said kill you quick, but I think I'm going to enjoy this." With that, he started squeezing her forearms, bringing the two bones there to the point of breaking. Faith had no choice but to cry out in pain.

And then the pain stopped. The vamp looked down at the spear sticking out of his chest. Faith looked backwards at her savior and found an upside down Buffy Summers standing on the sky.

"You look like you could use some help." Buffy quipped and offered a hand up.

Faith took the hand up. She looked around for the other two vamps. They were fighting Oz and Willow by the wall. "Help them. These aren't your average vamps."

"They can handle-" Buffy began dismissively.

Faith took the blonde's spear and charged towards the foursome. She got there just as one of the vamps got past Oz's spear and got a hand around his neck. A quick thrust from Faith and he was dust. The other one tried to use Willow to get in Faith's way but Faith just knocked the redhead out of the way. The look of surprise on his face as she finished him off was priceless.

"What was that for?" Willow jumped up dusting herself off. "I had him!" A normal human probably wouldn't have heard Willow whisper "Bitch."

Faith just snorted and threw her spear back to Buffy. "Oz had two seconds to live and you had maybe ten after that. Those weren't your average vamps."

Oz got up rubbing his neck. "It's true. He had me." he rasped out.

"It would take a lot more than six ordinary vamps to take me. But they had me before Buffy saved my ass." Faith admitted. "These guys didn't work like regular vamps. They were well trained."

Willow still looked angry but was at least intrigued. Faith's battered appearance gave some weight to her assertions. "How can you tell them from regular vampires?"

"Can't. Not until they start fighting anyways." Faith admitted. She looked at Buffy. "Can I borrow a stake for the walk home?"

Buffy handed one over. "What happened to yours?"

Faith looked a bit sheepish. Always being armed was one of her rules after all. "Forgot it. Went for a run to clear my head."

Willow, who was normally socially awkward and unaware, suddenly became psychic when it had to do with Xander and she brightened considerably at the prospect of Faith and Xander having a fight.

"I just had to get my head on straight." Faith continued with a minor glare at the redhead. "And I did."

"Come on. We'll walk you home." Buffy offered.