The Path To Redemption

Chapter 12

Author: twin who likes to travel

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Dawn and Buffy say goodbye to the gang in Scotland before moving to Italy. It's also the first half of the Scooby gang getting together for the holidays

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Reviews: I would like them. Constructive criticism is ok.

Author's notes: Since the Scooby gang wasn't a big fan of the United States holiday, Thanksgiving, I will skip over it and go straight into the Christmas and Chanukkah holidays. I saw that the Jewish holiday has been spelled many different ways, so I went with that particular spelling. I mean no offense to anyone of the Jewish religion who reads this. Konga, thanks for the review. It won't be the last time Dawn defends Faith. EN666, thanks for the review. I hope you're still liking it by the time you get to this chapter.

A few minutes later, Dawn/Faith's bedroom

When Giles and Buffy left together and Faith headed to the kitchen, Dawn went up to the bedroom. What she found surprised her a little. The room was spotless, their clothes were nicely separated from each other, and there were two picture frames on the wall. In the larger one were most of the pictures from the second celebration. There was an entire group shot, some of her and Faith, some of Buffy and Faith, one of Dawn and Buffy, one of Buffy and Willow, one of just the original Scoobies, and a few other various pictures. The smaller one contained a few pictures of Dawn's birthday party. Dawn had a big smile on her face in each of them. Then she saw a bottle of the perfume she used sitting on the dresser. She felt a warm sensation in her heart and stomach. Maybe the older girl was capable of more than they originally thought.

"What are you doing in here? I mean I know it was your room first, but for the last few months it's been mine."

"Well, I needed to get my clothes, and I wanted make sure you didn't mess up the room. Even though you promised you wouldn't."

"Ok."

"Was that your idea?" Dawn guessed as she pointed to both frames.

"Yeah, I mean yes. I thought you'd like a memory of your first birthday outside of the USA."

"What about the other one?"

"Well, that one's for me actually," Faith confirmed as she sat down on the bed, "But I can make one for you if you want."

"I would like that. I think Buffy would too. We could hang it in our family room."

"Great," Faith muttered before gulping down some water.

"And what about the perfume? It's the kind I use."

"I know. You smell nice when you wear it, so I thought what the hell. I'd try some."

"Faith, are you ok?" Dawn questioned at seeing Faith gulp down some more water.

"You know me, D, five by five."

"I don't believe you. Talk to me," Dawn pleaded as she sat down beside the brunette.

Faith got up, peeked outside, and then closed the door before joining the teenager on the bed, "What do you want to know?"

"The truth about why you've shared things with me that you haven't with the others, what you're hiding when the others say that you'll never fall in love, and why you're acting the way you are right now."

"Fine, I'm going to miss you. We've gotten close enough to call each other friends without it being a lie. You were the first to try since Angel. You defended me against your sister and the other Scoobies before you left on your vacation…"

"You heard us?"

"I heard every word. Thanks for doing that. Robin was the first person to tell me he loved me that probably meant it, and what did I do? I broke up with him. I broke up with a great guy because I never felt what he felt. I keep wondering what's wrong with me. That's what I hide that only you can see. I like that we can joke around easier than I ever could with B. The few times we kissed were simply because we wanted to see how the other girl would react for fun. You've been the first I can trust since Sunnydale. When you leave, we won't get to hang out anymore and it could affect our current friendship."

"It won't, I promise."

"If you say so. Would you like help in packing the rest of your stuff?"

"The rest of the clothes and some other stuff, but if you're going to be living here you should keep the furniture. We can get some in Italy."

"That's nice of you, D."

"You're welcome, and you can call me Dawnie if you want to."

"Ok, but only when it's the two of us. I got a rep to protect here, you know."

"Sure," Dawn consented and added when she spotted the patch on her right arm just above the tattoo, "Oh, Giles told us how hard you've been trying to quit smoking. How's it going so far?"

"I'm almost through that whole box. But I have been able to cut back on even the patches. I think maybe in a week or so I can be down to one or two a week."

"That's really great," Dawn complimented her with a sincere hug.

The girls almost kissed before Dawn realized what she was about to do and pulled away. Faith acted cool about it, but inside she wanted the kiss. The next five minutes were spent packing up Dawn's clothes and a few other things. Dawn almost ogled Faith's butt as the older girl took the smaller frame off the wall. Faith was grateful that her back was to the other girl at the moment. Dawn couldn't see the pain she was feeling at that time. She made sure she got herself under control before she faced the teenager.

"I'm going to miss you, too, Faith," Dawn declared as she started pacing toward the door and kept talking when she noticed Faith was standing still, "Are you coming? I think you should be there when we say goodbye to everyone else. So you can say goodbye to Buffy."

"I'll be there in a minute," Faith assured her.

Dawn left the room silently. When she was almost out of her hearing range of the bedroom, she heard something that scared her. She jumped at the sound of breaking glass, a soft scream, and Faith talking to herself. Half of her wanted to turn back and go check on the brunette while the other half forced her to go join the others. What she didn't know was what was going through Faith's head while she was alone in the room. While Faith was alone, she had stared at the picture frame. The pictures of her and Dawn seemed to be taunting her as the words, "It won't, I promise." repeated over and over in her head. Faith had been doing a good job controlling her temper around everyone, but the minute of imaginary taunting got her to rip the frame off the wall and throw it to the floor while letting out a soft scream. She considered it lucky that only the glass was broken with how it hit the floor. She then criticized herself for the outburst. She calmed down and vowed to herself to clean up the mess as soon as the sisters were gone.

About two minutes later, the entryway of the castle.

Faith arrived to everyone saying goodbye and hugging the sisters.

"You made it," Buffy exclaimed happily, "I thought you would have been the first to tell me goodbye," Buffy teased with a smirk that Faith still found a little sexy to this day.

"I had to help D pack then straighten up a little after that."

"Alright, You and Vi take care of these and any other girls that come here, ok?"

"You have my word, B, that I'll try my best."

"Good to know," Buffy concluded as she accepted the hug she got from her former enemy and now friend.

"Remember what you said upstairs, D."

"I will," Dawn complied as her hug with Faith lasted a little bit longer than the one the slayers had shared. "Come over and visit sometime. You can even crash at our place."

She was sure that both felt the heat caused by the hug.

"Remember what?" Buffy interrupted.

"That our friendship won't change after we move."

"Ok. Dawn's right, you should come visit us."

"You mean it, B?"

"Yes, maybe we could even go on patrol together one night."

Everyone else watched silently as Faith smiled and the Summers girls left the castle on their way to Italy. That very night, Faith had dreamed about Dawn. They were alone in Dawn's bedroom in Italy. They had made love, not had sex, according to Dawn. Dawn had told her she loved Faith afterwards and sealed it with a kiss. Faith couldn't say it back. It was clear from the tears that followed, how quickly Dawn had gotten dressed and hollered for Faith to do the same before kicking her out of the apartment half dressed that she had broken the younger girl's heart. She sat up in a sweat for a few seconds then cried herself back to sleep. As she had cried, she had thought about telling Buffy to get someone else to take over her job in Scotland and join a slaying squad farther away than Italy was. It pained her to think of that dream becoming a reality. It hurt as much as when her own dagger was pushed into her stomach by that same girl's older sister. She thought that others would call that justice of the ironically poetic kind.

A week later, Xander had escorted a handful of newbies to Scotland and accepted a date with Vi. Faith had directed a few jokes toward them that got the couple to laugh and shrugged it off when they made jokes about her never falling in love. After the couple went out on the date, Faith held back tears while tossing back a few beers. She had thought about the younger Summers off and on since the move. It made her both happy and scared when she realized that her feelings for Dawn were growing. Happy because it meant that maybe she was capable of falling in love, and bad because it was Dawn that made her feel that way. She knew that with her history that something could go wrong, and that dream would become a reality.

Thursday, December 25th, Christmas Day/Chanukkah, Buffy and Dawn's apartment in Rome, Italy.

Shortly after getting into a daily routine in Rome, Buffy and Dawn planned for Giles, Faith, the original gang, and their significant others to join them to celebrate the Christmas and Chanukkah holidays with them. However, only two of their group only had brought someone along with them. Giles had brought Olivia while Xander brought Vi. Xander and Vi had hit it off and were now a couple. He had moved back to Scotland and now shared what was originally his room with the redhead. The rest of the Scoobies were happy for him because it was the happiest he'd been before the whole marriage mess with Anya.

Meanwhile, Faith's infatuation with Dawn worried her so much that she had almost turned down the invitation to celebrate with them and stay on the hide-a-bed in the Summers' apartment. It had taken a small amount of pleading and a pout from Dawn before she caved and agreed to both. She knew that she and the teenager were on a collision course toward each other. There was a very slim chance of neither of them getting hurt emotionally. And that possibly she could be hurt physically if she would be the one responsible for their downfall. Buffy would definitely make the other slayer pay.

Around 8:00 AM

"Faith, get up. It's Christmas. You have to get up right now." Dawn advised as she excitedly jumped onto the couch, which had been pulled out into a bed, beside Faith.

"I know that, D, but why do I have to get up right now?"

"Because the rest will be here soon."

"How much time do I have?"

"The others will be getting here around 9:30 AM and it's almost 8:00."

"That's a whole hour and a half," Faith argued as she shot up into a sitting position and growled as she held her head with her hands, "OW!"

"Serves you right for drinking so much alcoholic eggnog and beer. What about that great slayer metabolism or constitution you and Buffy would always talk about?"

"She has a point there, Faith," a cheerful Buffy chimed in from the hallway, "how many cups did you have?"

"I kind of lost track after the fourth or fifth one," Faith griped and continued, "I didn't do anything crazy or embarrassing last night, did I? Like offer any of you a lap dance or make any other type of move?"

"No, you were pretty tame considering how drunk you got," Buffy described, "I'm going to go take a shower. You and Dawnie can decide by yourselves on who gets to go next."

After they heard the door close and the water be turned on, Dawn suggested softly, "We can give each other a kiss. Whoever breaks it first, for any reason, loses and has to go last."

"Really, that's how you want to settle it, with a kiss?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Aren't you worried about big sis catching us?"

"Not really. Besides, that didn't stop you last night," Dawn explained and smiled at a confused and nervous Faith.

"We kissed last night?"

"Kissing is putting it a little mildly."

"But B said I didn't do anything."

"She doesn't know, or she does and is waiting for the right time to say something."

"What did I do?"

"You came out of the bathroom after downing your fifth cup of eggnog. You asked me to show you my room because you hadn't seen it yet. I began to show you the room when you closed the door. You said that you liked it and smiled at how I had that birthday collage frame in my room and that the other frame looked good on the family room wall," Dawn paused long enough for both of them to gaze at the frame on the wall across from where they were sitting at that moment, "Then I said how I never really thanked you that much for making both of the collages and asked how I could thank you."

"What I did I say?"

"That you'd settle for a kiss. We started to kiss and ended up on the bed."

"And?"

"This is the result of that," Dawn revealed as she pulled the collar of her shirt to reveal a purple mark on the lower right side of her neck.

Faith gasped after blinking and whispered, "Anything else?"

"You tried to grope me and let me grope you."

"Where?" Faith choked out as she backed up a few inches away from Dawn.

"On both of us?"

"Yeah."

"You tried to touch my butt and put your hands under my shirt, both front and back."

"I'm REALLY sorry, Dawnie."

"It's ok, Faith. You didn't try it again after I stopped you."

"Ok, good, but what did I let you do?"

"The same thing you wanted to do to me."

"So then the only ones who know about this are the two of us?" Faith assumed as she quickly checked to see if she was wearing a bra, and saw she was. Dawn giggled at watching this.

"It was over the bra even though you offered to let me go under it. So are we going see who can last the longest?"

Faith brought her in for a kiss. It was only a matter of seconds before they opened their mouths and deepened the kiss.

"Alright, you win," Dawn said after regretfully pulling away to get some air.

"Yeah, I'll save you some hot water if B doesn't use it all up."

"That would be nice. I mean about you saving me some."