A/N: As far as I know she still has not been given a last name so for whenever it may come up Kennedy will be known as Kennedy Prescott, other single name protagonists that have an impact on the story will probably get a last name assigned to them too.
Kennedy
Kennedy woke up to the feel of someone else in bed with her. She couldn't remember taking anyone to bed last night so she rolled onto her side to see who it was. Next to her on the small bed she saw two people the girl who actually owned the bed they were sleeping on and her roadblock for getting Willow, Dawn Summers. Next to Dawn was Faith, the other half of the Chosen Two, also known as the Dark Slayer. Apparently she had decided that she wanted a real bed at some point in the night. Problem was, the bed was quite small would've normally held maybe two people comfortably, if one was skinny like Dawn.
Realizing she was not going to be getting back to sleep soon Kennedy rolled out of bed, not caring if her movements woke her companions. Dawn was awakend by her jostling though Faith managed to remain in dreamland. The younger girl decided that she too would get up and get on with the day. She carefully climbed out of bed and even readjusted the covers for the still sleeping slayer. After taking care of her morning ritual she made her way downstairs and found Kennedy sitting at the island in the kitchen with a glass of water. "Good morning Kennedy." She said trying to be civil and possibly start over on better ground with the potential slayer.
"Mornin," Kennedy grumbled in reply, realizing she was being kind of bitchy and that would not help her get this girl away from her target of the redhead she continued, "Sorry, I'm not normally one for happily waking up this early." She gestured at the clock on the microwave which read five forty-nine A.M.
"Yeah I'm not usually up quite this early either. Well since we're both already up would you be willing to help me get some breakfast ready for everyone? We're gonna have to make a run to the store too to pick up some extra things. Are you up for it?" Dawn asked.
Kennedy thought for a moment, "Sure as long as we can stop somewhere to get mochas or something. And I gotta warn you I'm not much of a cook, though I can make the coffee and I'm pretty good with the chopping and dicing."
"We can stop at The Espresso Pump on the way to the store. And when we get back you can be my sous chef and handing the chopping and dicing while I do the cooking."
The two women walked out to the garage and Kennedy figured they'd be taking the Jeep so she was a bit shocked when Dawn opened the driver's door to the Audi A6, "Damn! That's your ride?" Kennedy asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, it was my present from everyone for my "sweet sixteen" I love it too, it's a great car." Dawn answered with a smile.
"You're only sixteen? I thought Buffy said you had graduated." Kennedy continued after climbing in on the passenger side.
"If you wanna be technical I'm sixteen and a half. I graduated early, took the necessary courses. Mainly so I could help my sister out in supporting the household expenses, but also partially so Willow and I could date without her getting in trouble, seeing as how she teaches at the high school." Dawn explained.
"Makes sense to me." Kennedy nodded, "So what do you do then?"
"I help Tara in running my sister's dojo. I've trained with Buffy for a while and I teach the Kempo Karate class while Tara teaches Krav Maga."
"So I guess you're pretty good then huh?" Kennedy asked seeing Dawn in a new light now after hearing that she trained with the slayer.
"Yeah the whole groups been training together for a while, Buffy teaches Kempo Karate, Tara does Muay Thai, Aikido, and Krav Maga, Xander trains us in Jiu Jitsu, and Anya leads us in Yoga. Oh and Buffy trains us with weapons. On top of that I train in magic with Willow and Tara, I'm not as powerful as Tara, but I have a couple unique talents."
"Wow, so the stories I've heard about the legendary "Scooby Gang" are true then?"
"Most of the stories are probably true, though I'm sure some are exaggerated and some are just plain wrong."
"Cool," Kennedy said and they continued talking and much to Kennedy's chagrin she was actually starting to like Dawn, though she still wanted to get to Willow. Hmmm, maybe I can convince them to do a threeway…but Dawn's still technically underage. Dammit! Why can't things ever be simple? Looks like you'll have to think of something else Prescott.
Kennedy and Dawn stopped by the coffee shop to buy their mochas before continuing on to the local supermarket. Kennedy pushed the cart down the aisles while Dawn filled it up with things they needed to stock up on. "Oh, we should definitely stock up on Twinkies!" Kennedy insisted.
"OK, I can see that you are going to become one of Xander's favorite people." Dawn said laughing as she dropped three boxes of the snack cakes in the cart. "OK, milk, eggs, bacon, and sausage links are the only items left." She said glancing at her watch as she spoke, "Good we should still get back before anyone else gets up."
"So what's your story Kennedy, I mean you clearly know more about us than we do about you, so I'm curious have you always known you were a potential slayer?" Dawn asked as they were loading groceries into the trunk of the car.
"Well yeah, basically. My parents are well off business types from New York, and the Council found me early on and convinced my mom and dad out the things that live in the shadows. My watcher actually lived with us from the time I was old enough to start training. My original watcher Jeeves, yes that was really his name, was getting on in years when my training started and by the time I reached my mid-teens he had to retire for health reasons. The replacement they sent was a young watcher, fresh out of the factory, you know what I mean?"
"Yeah Wesley Wyndam-Pryce was like that, he was sent here after the Council fired Giles to be both Faith and Buffy's new watcher, problem was he had never faced a vamp or other demon outside of a controlled training scenario, so he was pretty incompetent, due to inexperience. Since then though he's been helping Angel in LA, I here he's quite a bad ass now."
"Jeannette was like that too, at first, but after a couple warm-up patrols she loosened up. We ended up getting really close…" Kennedy trailed off as she and Dawn settled in their seats inside the car.
Dawn saw the distressed look in the potential's eyes and placed her hand comfortingly over the olive skinned hand of the other woman, "You don't have to say anything else if you don't want to."
Kennedy smiled weakly at Dawn, "Thanks, but it's probably better to talk about it. So we were close, as in lovers. She was amazing, beautiful inside and out, always knew what to say when I was having a bad day, and was never afraid to bring me down a little when I got a bit too cocky. She kept me levelheaded, then those guys with the curved daggers came, the Bringers. Luckily my parents were out when the attack happened. We fought them off as long as we could but eventually they started to overwhelm us. Jeannette was brought down by one of those fuckers and I stood over her after that getting cut more and more. It wouldn't have been so bad if we had been armed, but just as I was about to collapse this grey haired guy comes wading through the sea of robed figures cutting them down left and right with his sword. Gotta say Giles is a lot more capable than he appears."
"I know what you mean…you saw one of the rare times he lets "Ripper" take over, You'll have to ask him if you want more of a backstory about that nickname."
"Anyway he and I finish off the Bringers and he tries to help Jeannette, but we lose her while he was patching her up. We didn't even get to bury her, I know I musta been in shock cause next thing we're running from my parents mansion as it's burning to the ground. I'm still upset that her body had to be left in there, but I know she woulda wanted me to use every opportunity I had to get away. After that Giles, Molly, Annabelle and I made our way out here. We stopped twice to try and meet up with two more potentials, but were too late in one case and the other, Vi I think had actually been warned in time by the Devon coven and got out, but her watcher died, if she made it she should show up any day."
"I have to ask…and I hate to ask something like this, but are you gonna be a problem for me and Willow?"
Kennedy was silent for a while, then sighed before answering, "At first I was determined to split you two up so I could work my way in with her, then I agreed to hang out with you this morning and got to know you a bit. I hadn't thought too much on it since yesterday aside from just a minute ago thinking maybe we could do a ménage a trios or something. At this point I'd have to say that I decided I like you too much to try and ruin your relationship, I'm probably still gonna hit on her a bit, maybe you too, but it won't be with the same goal in mind." She said honestly meaning everything word.
"Cool, we should all get along great then, we're kinda used to the incessant flirting from Faith so we should adjust alright." Dawn said as she parked her car in the garage.
Dawn and Kennedy spent the better part of the next hour getting breakfast ready for everyone. Kennedy sliced and diced the vegetables and brewed the coffee while Dawn did the actual cooking. They passed the time talking and joking with one another and when Buffy, Tara, Willow, Faith, and the other two potentials finally made their way downstairs to the kitchen they were somewhat stunned by Kennedy and Dawn's amicable attitudes toward each other. Faith and the other potentials were the first to recover and dive into the delicious morning meal awaiting them. "Are you guys feeling OK?" Buffy and Willow asked while Tara smirked at the two girls who had obviously become fast friends.
"Yeah Buff, we're good." Dawn replied as she set a plate in front of her red haired girlfriend.
At that moment Giles walked through the front door, "Sorry I left in the middle of the night, but the coven called me a told me there was a potential in a nearby town…so I went and retrieved her. Everyone this is Vi…Vi this is Buffy, Faith, Dawn, Willow, Tara, Molly, Annabelle, and Kennedy." Giles gave the introductions.
Vi, was a little younger than Kennedy and had red hair and big blue-green eyes, she wore a multi-colored, horizontal-striped t-shirt and a matching knit cap and red slacks, she gave a slightly nervous wave, "Hi everybody."
Faith simply nodded in response while the others gave their polite responses. Kennedy however had been rendered speechless when she saw the new girl arrive. All thoughts she had entertained of Willow or Dawn were banished from her mind along with all other forms of though, Don't just stand there like an idiot. Introduce yourself and say something cool…and quit staring at her! Kennedy mentally berated herself, "Hey…" she managed to squeak out, earning her a smile from the red headed potential. Hey? That's what you go with Prescott? Hey? And could you have sounded any more like a loser saying it? I highly doubt it. OK just play it cool, don't acknowledge your slip and maybe everyone else will ignore it too. And if that doesn't work, I've heard there are a lot of caves you can run off to and hide in around here…