author: Lucinda

rating: Y-14 for violence

thirteenth in the 'My Daughter' series

main characters: Sean and Tom Cassidy

disclaimer: Quentin Travers, Lilah Morgan, and Faith are the creation of Joss Whedon for the series BtVS and/or Angel the Series. Caine Marko, Tom and Sean Cassidy, and Charles Xavier are the creations of Marvel comics.

distribution: with the rest of the My Daughter series.

notes: AU after Faith turned herself in during S1 Angel/S4 BtVS.

.................

Faith stretched, feeling her shoulders crackle as she sat in her cell. Prison was boring. She'd had enough time to think about what had happened, and where she'd messed up. About how the Mayor had used her, taking advantage of the way the Council sucked hard. About what being the... a Slayer really meant. It didn't mean becoming a politician's weapon of choice. Not the Mayors, not the Council's... not anybody's. She was a person, not a weapon.

She'd have to do better in the future. Slay the demons and vampires, not political rivals. Remember that killing humans caused a lot of problems, so it might be better to just beak both legs of human scum and leave them in a dark alley in the demon districts.

She'd have to avoid doing anything else that would make it painful to look at herself in the mirror. In a way that had nothing to do with bruises, of course. Which would have to wait for her to get out of this overgrown concrete box. She was done with her time out.

This Slayer was ready to get back to business.

"You haven't slipped your leash and skipped the country, have you Faith?" Guard Thompson was struggling not to laugh as she peered between the bars to look at Faith.

"Last night I had a dream that I was lounging on a beach with a couple naughty half naked pirates and a bottle of rum, but I woke up here. If I had the choice between a couple hot pirates asking me 'What're yr orders, Cap'n?' and staring at the crack in the wall here? This place hasn't been a nightmare, but I'd take the pirates and rum any day," Faith grinned.

"But here you are," now Guard Thompson was snickering. "Did one of them look a bit like Johnny Depp?"

Faith grinned, pulling one leg up to wrap her arms around her knee as she sat on her narrow bed. "Yeah. Why the sudden interest in whether or not I skipped out?"

"There's a British guy in a suit that was having an argument with our boss. Apparently, the suit's boss back in England got kidnapped, and this dimwit wants to blame you," the expression on Thompson's face suggested all sorts of things about her feelings on this suit. "So my boss wanted to make sure that you're still here."

"I'm still here, and if I wasn't, England would probably be pretty low on my list of destinations," Faith shook her head. "What did he think I was going to do anyhow? Rip the door out of the frames, walk past you and all the other guards on shift with your big sticks, the shock sticks, and the guns that some of you carry, either grab your keys or rip out a couple more solid doors, and then run across the courtyard to the parking garage where someone might have been careless enough to leave their keys in the vehicle so that I can drive out? And then hop on a plane to England to grab his boss?"

"The parking garage had a gate on it," commented Thompson. "And how you'd get a plane flight in your bright orange jumpsuit is another good question."

Faith glanced at it, and then grinned, "Don't I need a passport to leave the country?"

She didn't want to admit that she had thought about leaving like that. She hadn't for several reasons. She was almost certain she could rip the door to her cell open, but there were several guards in this block, and at least one of them would have a gun, with permission to use it if someone was trying to escape. The doors between cell blocks were heavier, more solid and Faith doubted that she'd be able to force it open unless the hinges gave out. She knew that there were guns that could be fired into the courtyard. While she could leave the cell, she didn't know if she could get out of the prison alive if she took the direct route.

Chuckling, Thompson waved off Faith's question. "Don't worry about that. You're still here, so you couldn't have grabbed the guy from England."

"If the suit squawking at your boss is the same guy who showed up last month to accuse me of breaking into some London Historical society, then he works for the guys who gave a lot of the evidence that put me in here. Why would I want his boss?"

"Good point," for a few moments, Thompson was quiet. "I think I'd rather have a pair of pirates and some rum too."

In a small hotel that had the most interesting occupants, Tom Cassidy's cellular phone rang. He flipped it open, giving a soft, "Cassidy."

'I thought you'd like to know that I've caught the wild goose. We've already had a few long chats about several things,' The voice that came through the phone carried a hint of reverberation, something that could have been blamed on the connection. Of course, she had the same quality in person, when she felt like being herself…

"Did y' have any troubles catching the bastard?" he asked.

Mystique's only answer was a chuckle.

"I'll take that t' mean nothing that y' couldn't handle quite easily," he grinned. "I do appreciate this."

'I agreed to do this favor for you because I was curious. Now I'll keep it up because he's an annoying worm.'

There was a pause, and Tom thought he heard something thumping on the other end.

'Your daughter sounds quite interesting. I'd like to meet her, one day.'

"I'm hoping that any arrangements for introducing her to my associates could take place somewhere more comfortable than where she's been staying," Tom admitted.

'Of course. I'll be in touch.'

Tom sighed as a dial tone echoed in his ear. "That Mystique… stubborn, headstrong, up to her neck in trouble…"

As he put the phone down, he debated the merits of telling his cousin Sean what he'd done. After a bit of thought, he decided that he might do that… several years down the road. Maybe he should be more concerned about what sort of trouble Faith and Mystique could get into together…

He just hoped that he hadn't somehow made a mistake.

End MD13: For My Daughter.