Hi, guys! I've actually been responsible lately and put work and school before fanfiction. While that hopefully will prove a good thing for my grades and paycheck, it obviously also means that I can't guarantee regular updates. However, since I also had Writer's Block and a lazy muse stopping me from working on this particular chapter, "irregular updates" might just mean "every few days" from now on. But I can't make any promises.

"So, how'd it go with Angel and your mom?" asked Willow tentatively as she opened her locker and began to search for a new pencil, as her old one was now embedded several inches into a tree on the grounds. So much for emotional control. Then again, no one could blame her for feeling a little distress about Faith, could they? The girl was a living reminder that Willow didn't mean as much to her best friends as she thought she did. Okay, so maybe that was an overreaction. But Faith had tried to kill Xander, even if she was back on their side now…

"A lot better than I thought it would," said Buffy brightly, effectively disrupting Willow's unpleasant thoughts.

"Really?" she said, dropping the cautious, ready-to-be-consoling expression at once and replacing it with a smile to match Buffy's.

"Yeah," said Buffy. "She likes that he's got my back on patrols, and he proved that he wasn't just taking advantage of me and my teenage hormones or something, but I think the real reason is that he knows about art."

Willow giggled and nodded. "Parents only think a guy has 'a good head on his shoulders' if he's interested in and knowledgeable about what they do for a living."

Buffy winced sympathetically. "What does that mean for Oz?" she asked.

Willow shrugged. "Mom and Dad still get a little funny whenever they remember that he's a musician, but when he came over for dinner, he played it just as cool as he always does." Her expression became dreamy and she lost her train of thought for a second, until Buffy gave her a playful nudge in the ribs. "Oh! Sorry. Uh…," she frowned, trying to remember what she had been talking about, while Buffy fought to hold in her giggles.

"Oh yeah! So now they mostly think of him as a 'nice, thoughtful, intelligent young man'," Willow went on at last, imitating her father's deep, stern voice for the last five words. "I guess it's good they haven't seen him since then, or they might notice the hair color thing—and he wasn't wearing his earring and his nails weren't black then either." She trailed off, looking faintly worried, and Buffy laughed.

"And they probably don't know he's a werewolf, right?" she asked, grinning as she retrieved the textbook she needed from her locker, closed it, and leaned on the door.

"Nope," said Willow. "They're still doing the selective memory thing, so that's one less thing to worry about."

"That's nice," said Buffy. "I'm glad my mom knows, though. Now, instead of thinking I'm some kind of budding delinquent who sneaks out at night and doesn't get the best grades like she thought ever since I was called, she's proud of me, even though she worries. She told me that last night after Angel left."

"Aw, that's so great, Buffy!"

"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "Mom-validation is pretty awesome. Especially when followed by some good old fashioned violent triumph over evil and then lots of quality boyfriend time." Willow beamed while Buffy gave an exaggerated sigh of contentment, which culminated in more giggling.

"What are you lovely ladies laughing about?" came Xander's voice from over their shoulders. "We've got Math next," he said gravely. "This is no time to be laughing."

The two girls exchanged glances and promptly lapsed into renewed fits of giggles.

[o]

Despite Xander's pronouncements of doom, they survived Math, as well as all of the classes that followed, and shortly after sunset, they found themselves gathered in the library, where Faith updated them on the mayor's movements.

Faith didn't know why everyone had to be present for this, but she didn't like it. She would much rather have simply told Giles or Wesley—or, better yet, Angel, who, of the entire group, was the only one she fully believed when he said he understood her and cared what happened to her. There was nothing openly hostile about any of the others, though, but they still had a way of making her feel like an outsider.

Giles watched her a little too carefully whenever he was in the same room with her. Cordelia was always too busy sneaking flirtatious glances at Wesley to even listen to her, let alone make her opinion of her known to the library at large, as she might otherwise have done. Wesley was so preoccupied with attempting not to appear pleased by Cordelia's interest that he frequently had to ask Faith to repeat something she'd said. Xander tried to appear pensive and deep, but succeeded only in looking wary, except when he cast resentful and suspicious glares at Wesley and Cordelia. Willow rested her head on Oz's shoulder and idly played with the sleeve of his jacket. A few feet away from them, Buffy was sitting in Angel's lap, leaning back against his chest with their hands entwined on her stomach. Even though both of them were listening carefully to everything Faith said (unlike most of the others), they remained relaxed and unfazed the entire time, and occasionally a small smile would appear on one of their faces.

Altogether, it was almost enough to make Faith want to hurl. But she was a loner anyway, so why should any of it bother her? And this was her big, shining moment, right? She was the one with the big assignment to bring down the bad guy from the inside. She didn't need any of them.

[o]

The next afternoon, Faith arrived at the library with Wesley, where she found Willow determinedly working at the computer behind the checkout counter. Faith immediately hopped up on the counter and peered at the screen, but she had very little experience with computers and consequently had no idea what Willow was doing. Even so, this was better than standing around, which would undoubtedly invite the attention and questions of Giles, for both of which she really wasn't in the mood.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Giles," said Wesley, who was still thoroughly out of breath from the training session.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"Faith did quite well on the obstacle course," panted Wesley. From her perch on the counter, Faith smirked. Noticing this, Wesley couldn't help but add, "still a little sloppy, though." Faith's eyes flashed indignantly in his direction, and he edged away from her, looking apprehensive. "Where's Buffy?" he asked in a completely transparent attempt to change the subject.

"Training with Angel," said Giles dully. "And do feel free to interpret that in the most figurative way you can, as it would probably be more accurate."

"Ah," said Wesley awkwardly.

"Yes, well," said Giles. "I've just made up a fresh pot of tea, and you look like you could do with some."

"Oh," said Wesley, caught off-guard at receiving such a friendly offer from the older Watcher. "Yes, I could, actually. Thank you." With that, the two of them went into the office, leaving Faith and Willow alone.

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Faith curiously after about a minute's silence punctuated only by the gentle tapping of Willow's fingers on the keyboard and the indistinct sounds of Giles's and Wesley's voices.

"I'm trying to access the mayor's personal files," said Willow vaguely, a slight crease appearing on her forehead.

Faith raised her eyebrows. "Can you do that?" she asked, impressed.

"Well, he's got some tricky barriers set up," said Willow.

"Can you get past them?" asked Faith.

"Eventually I'll get through," said Willow, an unmistakable note of smugness in her voice.

Faith continued to watch. "Hey, why do you need to do this anyway?" she said after a while, frowning. "I see the Mayor every day."

Willow shrugged, not taking her eyes off the screen. "Giles asked me to. The mayor is really bad news, and Giles wants us going at him from as many angles as we can."

"Yeah," said Faith. "I guess." But her frown didn't go away.

[o]

"No peeking, now, young lady," Mayor Richard Wilkins III admonished sternly. Faith couldn't stop herself from giving him an annoyed look before she closed her eyes. No matter how much time she spent around this guy, she couldn't get used to how weirdly wholesome he was. An advantage of this was that it made it easy for her to play her part. She could be as surly or reluctant as she wanted without him ever acting even remotely suspicious of her.

After making sure Faith's eyes were closed, the mayor beamed in giddy delight and opened the door in front of which they had been standing. "Walk forward a few steps now…there you go…now, stop. Open your eyes."

Faith did so, and her jaw immediately dropped. She was standing in what was probably the nicest apartment she had ever been in. There was a big, squashy-looking bed with spotless, brand-new covers, a huge TV that probably got a few hundred channels, and big arched windows that made the place feel even more spacious than it really was. Despite all this, it still wasn't busy or cluttered with too much stuff, which she liked. "Whoa," she said. "Boss, this isn't—is this for me?"

"Of course it's for you!" he said, waving off her shock with an airy hand and grinning broadly. "You've earned it! A guy like me can't strike fear in the heart of his competition without a bona fide Slayer at his side, can he? I don't know why I ever settled for using vampires."

"I guess," said Faith, who, despite her confidence in her own abilities, was still amazed by how much he actually trusted and valued her after such a short time. And yet Giles still thought it wasn't enough.

It was lucky that she was looking around at the apartment and had her back to the mayor so that he couldn't see the heavy scowl that suddenly crossed her face. Realizing that it was there, she quickly forced it away before she turned back to face him.

"Willow's been trying to hack into your files," she said abruptly.

"Willow Rosenberg, upcoming valedictorian of this year's senior class?" he asked in surprise. Her name had been appearing in the newspaper honor roll for the past decade, and he'd heard her mentioned proudly by Bob Flutie before his unfortunate demise and, more impressively, by the much more difficult to impress Snyder.

"Yeah," said Faith, feeling a small twinge of uneasiness for this betrayal. But she'd hold off on the full-blown guilt until Buffy and Co. got her a place as cool as this, she rationalized spitefully. "She's one of Buffy's friends. I don't think she's found anything yet."

"Well, that's very interesting," said the mayor thoughtfully.

Here we go with alternate "Doppelgängland". The chapter title pretty much sums up anything I would say in the commentary. Except that Wesley is awesome.