Wow, two chapters this time... and you guys though I'd forgotten about you. Nah, just been damn busy. Hope you like the stuff that was cut out of the original version.

Faith smirked at her, and Taunie paused mid-chew in a brief moment of worry. The slayer had managed to push back their 'igirlie sleepover thing/i' long enough that it was fairly near the girl's birthday. She knew that was what the slayer had done, but had gone along with it when Faith hadn't mentioned anything about birthdays or such to the others of the house. For that moment, as the darker slayer smirked at her over their pizza, Taunie feared that she'd been duped, and the others would come parading down the stairs any second.

"So… what was the name of the mystery girl again?"

Taunie let out the breath she'd been holding and swallowed, rolling her eyes. "I never told you the name of the supposed mystery girl…." She paused, preparing to take another bite, and eyed Faith. "And I won't."

"And that means I'm right, and ya do have a girl your jones'n after." Faith was still smirking, this time more proudly, and Taunie rolled her eyes again in response. "I meant that chick ya made up to be datin' so the kids at school leave you alone."

"Zoe… and they haven't been." Taunie sighed and leaned back against the cot, watching as Faith carefully picked out her seventh slice from the pizza box. There was the slightest sound of someone, upstairs, shuffling at the door, but it didn't open, so neither did anything in retaliation. "Some of 'em aren't in my personal bubble anymore, yeah… but a couple of the cheerleaders have been buggin' me even more now, and the jocks won't fuckin' shut up. Dawn nearly tackled one that pinched my ass."

As Taunie smiled happily at the memory of the surprised, and clueless, halfback stumbling away from an enraged Summers girl, Faith snorted. "You're hot, Taunie-girl. Just gotta accept it. More you let it bother ya, or respond to it, more they'll pester ya."

"It wasn't like this before…" Taunie sighed and set down the unfinished half of her slice, staring up at the basement ceiling. "Even back then I didn't really want to be popular, you know… I just wanted some friends. Any friends… people that could be around me for more than a minute… that would smile…" She sighed and shook her head, trying not to pay attention to Faith's oddly quiet end. The slayer was probably looking at her sadly again; Faith would do that whenever Taunie let something along those lines slip. "I like that people want to be around me now… it's nice… but it's so fucking overwhelming sometimes. All those people? The boys trying to corner me? Everything… it's just so…"

"Overwhelming… yeah…" Faith finished for her, the slayer's tone of voice telling Taunie that she was, indeed, giving her the sad-puppy look. From Faith she knew it wasn't pity. Faith had been through enough in her own life to not pity, just empathize. There was a moment of awkward silence that passed between them, though, before she heard the slayer snort. "You could always beat the shit out of one of those jock types and start giving the pompoms the stink eye and they'd probably leave you alone…"

Taunie chuckled too, sputtering and swinging her head around to stare at her friend. "Fuck! With my luck the kids at school would think me 'cool' and 'badass' and I'd just get more fans!"

Faith laughed too, and they lapsed into comfortable silence again. The evening wasn't passing too badly, all said. It wasn't quite her birthday yet, another several days, but it was probably the best birthday celebration she'd ever had, however unofficial it was. Just the two of them, they'd gotten the others to leave them be for the evening, with several boxes of pizza, soda, cards, and… of all things… scrabble. They hadn't broken out the board game yet, but Faith had given her a nasty look when she'd laughed at its presence.

"Okay, name of the game is blackjack truths." Faith laughed, shuffling the cards quickly and efficiently, with a couple of tricks thrown in to make Taunie feel significantly intimidated. "Sorta like truth or dare, but instead of getting the option, you lose a hand, you have to answer a question. Preferably an embarrassing one. If not, you have to do something equally humiliating determined by the hand winner."

"You suck!" Taunie decried, laughing and shaking her head. "And you're on!"

"Mkay, you know how to play blackjack, yeah?" Faith raised both eyebrows and Taunie glowered at her. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hit or stay?"

The first several hands were easy. Faith didn't completely screw her over, though the girl was fairly sure that the two times she'd won had been given to her, and the questions, though embarrassing, were light and amusing. Finally, she squinted with a wrinkled nose at the perfect blackjack Faith had displayed to her, beating her twenty. "Sometimes I think you cheat."

"I didn't ask ya that." Faith smirked at her, and Taunie snorted. After several silent seconds, she felt tense, and looked up at her friend. "T… girl… what'd ya mean about before, huh? About just wantin' people to be able to be around ya, and smile?"

Taunie shifted uncomfortably. Finally, she hedged. "It has to do with what I am. My energy. It put people off."

"Doesn't seem t' do that here, T." Faith nearly growled, and she sighed.

"I've got it more under control now, I guess. I belong here, it's not the same."

"Taunie…"

"Faith, I just can't, okay? I'm sorry…"

"Why!" Taunie winced back at Faith's sudden outburst, and looked worriedly at the slayer. Thank the powers the others had ducked out just a bit earlier for a movie with Xander. "Why can't you, Taunie? Huh? Why! Don't you know what that does? To you? The way it eats inside? Do you know what holding that shit back did to me? T, I'm fuckin' worried about you! Why won't you talk to me!" Taunie's brows knitted and she could only stare as Faith pushed a shaking hand through her hair. "Please, T. Anything. I'll do anything if you'll just talk ta me… to anyone. Red even! Dawn! Anyone! No one knows anything! I'll tell ya anything ya wanna know about me. My past! My mom! That… that thing that was in me…. Malice…."

"I… Faith… I just… I'm sorry." She let out a dejected breath, swallowing hard, and watched Faith storm out of the basement. "Shit!" After several moments of standing there awkwardly, not really knowing what she was supposed to do now that Faith had run off, she moved to chase after her. It wasn't that Faith couldn't' take care of herself… she was a Slayer, for fuck's sake… but she hadn't been lying when she'd said that Faith was the closest thing she'd ever had to a best friend. She got all the way into the front yard before she managed to sense the slayer up on the roof. The climb, even aided by the tree, wasn't easy. "Faith, please…"

"Why can't ya talk to me, Taunie? Why?" Faith huffed out, and she was almost sure she saw tears on the dark slayer's face. "Is it me?"

"No… no… it's… I just can't. I'm… I can't." Taunie crouched there nervously, watching her friend, and nearly rolled off of the roof, startled, when a voice spoke behind her.

"Why not?" Faith jumped too, obviously having not noticed anyone approaching, and turned to glare menacingly, especially after Taunie had to scramble not to fall off. Whistler shifted his tacky shirt and shrugged his shoulders, as if they weren't discussing anything important.

"Fucking-A Whistler!" Taunie hissed. If she were a cat, her back would have been nearly bent in half from arching so high. "Scare the shit out of us why don't you? Eh? And for fuck's sake, you're the fucking one that gave me the fucking rules!"

"Again with that word, huh? Not very polite, is it?" He rolled his eyes at her as if she were clueless. "Doesn't exactly seem like Faithy here would go blabbing it around, now does it? Sure as anything she won't try anything stupid like sending you back. No harm in saying anything." Taunie glared at him, and he rolled his eyes again. "Jeese, we decide to let you have someone know and this is the thanks we get. No appreciation, no appreciation at all…"

If it hadn't been enough that he was standing, idly, on one of the tree branches without any other support or balance, he began to quickly fade away as he griped about her lack of appreciation, making Faith twist and jump to a defensive posture. Taunie glared at the spot where Whistler had been, and let out an annoyed breath. All of that damn time hedging and avoiding with Faith, and they wait until it got to this point to say anything. "What the fuck…"

"He does that. It's really annoying." Taunie growled, still glaring at the spot, before she looked back at Faith. The slayer looked about ready to either freak out, or attack something, and Taunie ducked her head, guiltily. "I… um… There are some things I have to tell you."

Faith looked like she was in shock, and where her eyes had been a bit puffy from crying before, they were bloodshot and glossy again with unshed tears. Taunie had explained everything, with a great deal of relief at finally being able to explain, to get it all out, and had even come to tears once or twice at the fuzzy memories of the other world. It wasn't all clear anymore, her time in this world, where she should have been in the first place, doing a good deal to dampen and dilute her connection to the other, but having experienced how life should have been all along made what she could remember hurt all the more. She hadn't liked explaining to Faith that, where she came from, all of this, everything around them and the entire group's history was nothing more than a television show. She hadn't thought, though, that the slayer would take it so hard. They'd dealt with stranger things, before.

"I…" Faith swallowed and looked at Taunie with those glossy eyes, and the girl tensed in preparation. "You… you've seen… you what I'm really like… I… Taunie…"

"Hold the fucking phone." Taunie growled, making Faith wince. "Stop that right there, Faith. It was a fucking show! Yeah, I was creepy obsessed with it sometimes, but it was a fucking show. There are enough differences, and I know what those differences are, to know that I did not actually see you like that. And no, it wasn't you. She was worse. Either way, though, that was you then, not anymore. Don't you fucking freak out over that because I don't give a shit what happened back then. It's past."

Faith laughed, forcefully wiping the stray tears from her eyes, and snorted at Taunie. "Fine. Damn… it's just… yanno… awkward that I know ya seen me at my worst… worse than my worst even, I guess." Taunie rolled her eyes. "So ya had a thing for me, eh?"

"Had… have… whatever. I know ya don't think of me like that." Taunie shrugged and sighed, smiling as she realized that Faith didn't hold her secrets, or her past, against her. "You're in love with Buffy, I know. It's cool. Besides… I like having you as a best friend. You know I've never had one before."

"Yeah sure… just no more molesting me in my sleep." Faith joked.

"I never once!" Taunie sputtered, and moved to climb down ahead of the slayer. "Big head. Damn, ya admit a girl is hot and first thing she does is accuse you of perversions…"

"So I'm the reason why ya don't wanna date anyone from school, T?" Faith asked, hopping down and nudging the girl into the house again. The others would be back home again soon. "That's kinda fucked up."

"Okay, firstly, I had a huge crush on you, so that wouldn't be fair to whoever I would have been supposedly dating." Taunie argued, making Faith roll her eyes. "And two, I don't know that I could… you know… be with someone, even if it's not serious… after…" Faith shifted awkwardly at the top of the basement stairs, and Taunie looked at her just as uncomfortably for a moment before preceding her down. "She fucked up my head, even if it wasn't all her fault."

"All of it was." Faith interrupted.

"Even if it wasn't all her fault." Taunie reiterated, though not forcefully, and rolled her eyes. "I mean, it's enough that just having people not cringe away from me and want to be around me… It's weird to have people actually want to date me. For me to be with someone from school, when I'm still getting used to just being popular? It'd be difficult enough to date someone that didn't know about whatever it is that I am, without having to add in how fucked up my head is to that equation."

"T, that chick didn't care about you. She saw you were hot, had some money, and easily influenced and controlled. I seen it before… I've been there." Faith growled, shoving the cards off to the side and considering the now very cold pizza. "She got what she wanted from you, and screwed with your head the entire time using that feeling the 'not-belonging' you explained gave her as an excuse… and then when you wanted more, she fucked your head so much that you wanted to die. It's all her fault… and when ya finally get together with another girlie, you'll see that. It doesn't have to be serious enough to where you'd worry about them finding out about your wings."

Taunie snorted and twisted around on her cot, watching Faith shove their mess around and munch on cold pizza. "So what, you think I should actually go out with one of those airhead cheerleaders? Or one of the other random chicks from school, most of which probably only flirt with me because it's supposed to be 'cool' to do so?"

"I think you're scared, T, and that when ya stop bein' scared, it won't be as bad as ya think." Faith grumbled, and sneered at the crust she'd been gnawing on. "But, take your time, yeah? Rushin' it would just fuck your head up more."

"Wise words, oh Slayer." Taunie sighed.

"Yeah… well… been where I have," and there Faith tapped her own head, "and gone through that shit in your head like I did… deal with it in prison like I had to… you learn a little bit about what's cause you're scared, and how to move at a good pace."

"And Buffy?"

"B ain't ready…" Faith sighed and flopped onto her bed. "I don't think she ever will be… but that's okay. We got so much history, and so much shit went down, it may be better that she doesn't."

"Faith, if she's gay, she's so far in the closet she can't even see the door anymore." Taunie grunted. "Now that is scared."

Faith laughed a little bitterly, but nodded. "Whatever, B's still… B. Maybe someday I'll get over her." Taunie snorted. "Or I'll pine away. Yanno, one or the other."

"Thanks Faith." Taunie didn't have to look in the slayer's direction to know she was looking up. Upstairs, the front door slammed as the other three returned from the movie. "For, you know… accepting me. As I am. I… don't want to ever have to go back."

"Never gonna happen, T. Never gonna happen." Faith lay back again, and listened to the others upstairs move around. Taunie lay silently too, both of them listening as they let the evening's drama ease away. "Promise."

TBC