usual disclaimer, if you recognize it, I don't own it.

Chapter 2

"Passing all the cars on the way
Movement of the wind, back wheels spin
Pop in a cassette and push play

I'm going back to Cali, Cali, Cali
I'm going back to Cali - yea y'all, I don't think" –

*Ding* cut in over LLCoolJ's voice, on the in flight radio.

"We are starting our descent into Los Angeles. Please fasten your seat-belts and return seat-back trays to their upright position, the crew will be making their way through the cabin to collect your headphones and any trash at this time. We'll be landing in about twenty-five minutes, local time 11:45 and the weather is sunny and warm. On Behalf of the crew and I, thank you for flying Continental."

Faith took off her headphones and wrapped the cord around them like they had come. And threaded her ponytail through the back of the Red Sox cap she settled on her head.

As the stewardess came by she smiled and thanked her. Faith had no illusions that the woman had given the kid the headphones in part so she wouldn't bother her, but she was still glad. Thankful that she'd had the last row to herself, she knew they'd placed her there to make it easy for the stewardess that was supposed to keep an eye on her. She zipped up her backpack and looked at LA outside the wings of the plane. As the flaps extended, she leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes thinking about the past few days.

She had been woken when her bedroom door opened. A sense of déjà vu, she remembered seeing D'Hoffryn before she passed out but more immediately was a memory of going to bed before her mom got home with Jimmy, her latest boyfriend. She remembered this night, it's when Jimmy's friend Tom had tried to get her to blow him.

She'd grabbed her bat and started yelling much sooner this time around, remembering that when it happened the first time in her memories she'd been a lot more confused. The fact that the guy had his dick in his hand when he came into the room made it pretty obvious there wasn't any innocent mistake. She'd taken a swing at Tom who jumped back but not in time to prevent her clipping him in the knee.

Like last time, Jimmy had come busting in, her mom yelling behind him. The same as before, Jimmy hadn't believed Tom's protests but instead of throwing him out of the apartment and fighting with him in the street, they'd started to fight in the living room. She had found out later that she had fractured his kneecap when she hit him.

Faith, thinking she might have to book it, used the distraction of them fighting to steal her mom's stash of cash. Getting dressed, she got ready to run if need be, stuffing some clothes in a back pack. She'd held on to her baseball bat in case Tom overcame Jimmy. Then the cops showed up. It turned out that both Jimmy and Tom had warrants out. Her mom had hit one of the cops with a lamp and the next thing she knew, a lady cop was taking her to the station and then a social worker was taking her to a temporary residence facility. Faster than should have been possible, she was being trundled off to a relative that she didn't remember having. It didn't make any sense, until she saw the city she was going to.

Stepping off the plane she was struck again how much air travel changed after September 11th. There just past the gate in the middle of the terminal was a crowd of people. There was a teenager holding up a sign that said Lehane. It was Xander with a woman standing next to him, her hand on his shoulder.

When she got close to them, she pointed to the sign, "I'm Faith."

"You look a lot like your mother did at your age." The woman said.

"I haven't seen too many pictures, but I guess," she held her hand out to the woman.

"Jessica Harris, I know I'm really your cousin but you can call me Aunt Jessica if you want." She said taking Faith's hand in both of hers.

"Probably cause less confusion." Faith replied.

"And this is your Cousin Alex, or Xander as his friends call him." She said indicating her son.

Faith looked Xander in the eye and thought she saw recognition there. She extended her hand.

"You can call me Xander or Alex either is fine." He said taking her hand.

"Not Xray" she said using his radio designation with a little laugh to make it sound like a joke.

"That would just slay me," he replied. "Unless you want to be Foxtrot." Faith stumbled as Xander laughed, a laugh that didn't reach his eyes. His eyes said they would talk later.

Mrs. Harris seemed to shrug off their exchange, "Alex, why don't you take Faith's back pack for her and let's go get her luggage."

Soon they were back in the car driving out of LA.

"Faith, there's a few things you need to know about where we live." Jessica said as she drove up into the Sepulveda Pass. "It's a really nice place to live – during the day." She paused for a minute changing lanes to get around a slow panel van.

"At night, it has a higher crime rate than your average city, so I'm going to ask that you are home before dark every day unless you are out with an adult, either myself or Xander's uncle Rory, or until you make your own friends, one of Xander's friends' parents. I work a rotating shift, right now I'm on nights, while I'm at work, don't answer the door and don't invite anyone into the house." She looked over at Faith sitting in the front seat of the minivan. "I know this sounds paranoid but it's way too easy to get into trouble in Sunnydale after dark."

Faith nodded, "Aunt Jessica, some of the neighborhoods Mom and me have lived in have been pretty sketchy, I've got no problem with those rules."

"Thank you Faith, I'll worry a lot less." Jessica looked up. "Faith, I know you've got the two duffles of clothes, We'll definitely get you some new clothes before school starts, but is there anything you need for the next few weeks? Sunnydale isn't the biggest town and there are better bargains here in LA."

"A couple of things yeah."

The next hour was filled with a repeat of the previous day, although the bike that Faith got came from K-Mart, not Sportmart. Xander was paying attention when they were checking out and he saw that Mom once again used Tony's credit card.

When they got to the Harris household there was a note from Rory that he and Tony had been by the house to pick up a few more things.

That evening, Jessica left for work leaving the two kids to settle in.

Xander put on some Floyd and sat down in the living room.

"So Cousin?" Faith said with a raised eyebrow as she slid bonelessly into the sofa across from him.

"Yeah, not that I can remember before this week."

"What do you remember?" she said looking serious

"Everything up until the explosion, then I'm waking up a couple days ago D'Hofryn's there, he said something about the slayer making a wish then he drops some non-explanation and disappears."

Faith sits up, "Wait a minute, you got the big H? All I got was some asshole waving his junk at me."

"Can we start from the beginning? What happened in that canyon, and what do you mean some guy waving his junk at you?"

"Well, this is my fault," Faith said sighing. "I was big time FUBAR and you were in worse shape. I was half out of it and I said the W word and the tricky bastard bounced us back. The next thing I know I'm waking up to one of Mom's boyfriend's friends trying to convince me of the wonders of joining the glorious church of sucking his cock. That happened the last time around too, but instead of Mom's boyfriend taking him outside to beat on him, they proceeded to bust up the living room, which was all well and good until the cops showed up and Mom must have been more out of it than usual as she took a swing at one of the cops with a lamp and actually hit them." Faith stopped for a minute. "Even with being on the Hellmouth, this works better, as last time the next guy mom had over who tried that didn't get his ass kicked, which is when I hit the road the first time. So yeah, I'd rather be here with you."

Xander looked at her, caring evident in his eyes. "Faith, I'm sorry I knew things were rough but you've seldom talked specifics, that won't happen here."

"It's okay Xander," Faith said. Pointing to her head she said, "Up here that shit's fifteen years ago, I'm over it, and if not, I can find someone who deserves it to take it out on. So tell me your side."

"Well, like I said I woke up to H telling me he would hide me and if you're here, I'm assuming you as well from the PTB as much as possible and that I and I'm assuming he meant we, were free to blow the prior timeline all to hell. So I wake up and other than Mr. coyote ugly giving me the go forth and screw up the world speech, the first thing I hear is my mom telling my uncle that she's bouncing my dad to the curb for cheating on her, which didn't happen before, that was on Thursday and the next thing I find, I've got a cousin that's going to be a stone fox and lives down the hall."

"Going to be, boy-toy?" Faith said raising an eyebrow.

Xander gave her a critical look, "Well, you're a very attractive young woman, but not exactly the mid drift baring, blouse button popping, painted on leather pants goddess that pulled into town four years from now and took advantage of an innocent Xander." Xander said with a smile.

"Innocent?" Faith said with a laugh.

"Okay maybe not innocent, but clueless as hell." Xander said smiling.

"So, how are we going to shake things up?"

"Truck bomb at City Hall?"

"Tempting but harder to pull off with at our current chronological ages, a fifteen year old buying a ton of fertilizer and a couple of barrels of used oil would probably raise questions. Let's hold that thought though for some point before Dick gets too hard to beat." Faith shook her head, "Also, as much as I want to toast him, from when I was working for him, he may be the reason why until Buffy arrived on scene there weren't any world ending threats that got off square one, once she was here, he let her deal with the big bads to keep from noticing him."

"Okay, so we don't sanction him until there's a slayer and official representative of the watchers on sight.

"What do you know about the dark side prior to the Harvest?"

"Should I call you my watcher since it sounds like you're stepping up as research guy?"

Xander ignored her comment, "Since Giles arrived during my sophomore year, I don't know if there are detailed notes about when Darla arrived or when the vessel and the rest of the fangs came to wake the master. If I understand correctly, the Hellmouth was putting lots of evil vibes out, but wasn't the active beacon of doom like it was starting next year, but as you pointed out that could have been the Mayor either siphoning dark energy or just making sure that nobody played too heavily in his personal sandbox."

Faith, after thinking for a while said, "So really we should just focus on being better positioned when this hellmouth starts to get really active."

"I hate to sit back and wait, but other than maybe thinning the heard of the bumpy forehead gang with a particular desire to dust Darla in the next twelve months, I don't know if there is anything we can do."

"I know I'm stronger than I was originally and you said that the primal is there, but I don't have the full slayer strength or senses, I'm used to, and we're still kids, do you really think we can do much without ending up as snack food?"

"I'm not saying tonight, but let's start training and preparing and if the opportunity comes up, let's do it," Xander said steepling his fingers together. "So I've been thinking, we should try to be the kind of kids that get the benefit of the doubt,"

"Well, I've done the rebel coloring outside the lines thing, it might be nice to be the good kid for a change."

Faith sat for a minute. "Crap, I'm not even in high school yet. Do you think I can use knowledge of old English and Latin to get out going to middle school?"

Xander laughed, "No, but why don't you talk to mom about skipping eighth grade. You've definitely got the knowledge. Sell it as not being challenged and wanting to be with me and my friends and making it so she only has to arrange one set of transportation."

"You think she will buy it?"

"Yeah, and if my experience with young slayers and social workers bears out, anything that improves your chances of staying in school and out of trouble will be supported."

"Social workers, been there done that, annoying."

"Well the good news is Sunnydale syndrome should make the social worker thing easier, I mean even when Buffy was on all kind of people's shit list and didn't have a job, she got custody of her sister without too many hassles about the accusations and suspicions that were in her juvenile record."

"Okay, how do we make school better?"

"Good grades."

"Check."

"Sports, a Letterman's jacket is like a blame repelling talisman for teachers."

"I've heard stories about you in a speedo, I'm down with that."

Xander blushed, "I'm thinking that will happen, but I may have to kill the coach and the nurse before they can make fish men," he said joking darkly.

"Not ruling that out." At Xander's raised eyebrow, "Hey you and I know that demons don't have a corner on the evil market."

"I won't dispute you there. Actually I was thinking cross country."

Faith gave him a questioning look.

"Would you prefer cheer-leading?"

"That would lead to multiple homicides."

"Well I don't plan on going out for football, I like my brain cells and my ribs in their uncrunched state and, yeah, hiding the bodies would be more trouble than it's worth. I mean you could do volleyball, but for me it's the only option as a fall sport. Plus although it's a team sport it's mostly an individual performance and I remember them stumping in PE for people to join the team every year, so we've got a better chance of getting on the team."

Faith nodded.

"That makes sense. So school, we try to stay under the radar by swimming in the upper edges of the heard, any other thoughts?"

"Are we thirteen and fourteen or are we in our twenties?"

"We may have the experience and perspective of adults, but I think in most things, we need to be teenagers, otherwise we'll go crazy." Faith paused for a moment, "You know teenagers who with minimal support, save the world on a regular basis."

"That sounds familiar," Xander said as he got up and went upstairs.

Coming back down the stairs, he handed her a t shirt folded around something. "It's not much, but here's a welcome to your new home gift."

Faith looked at him and then opened the package. A metal rosary, small squirt bottle with a permanent marker cross on the outside, and a stake.

"Thanks Xander" she said, "I have my cross that my grandmother gave me and a baseball bat that was in my checked bag, but I didn't have a chance to gather anything and then when I found out I was flying cross country, I thought weapons were a bad idea."

"Yeah, even though 9/11 hasn't happened yet, a ten inch stake might raise questions."

"So yeah, we prepare to fight," Faith said feeling the weight of the stake.

"I'd also like to convince Willow and Jessie to go out for sports with us, and we might teach them both a thing or two about fighting.

"You think you can get Red to do the sports thing?" Faith asked skeptically.

"Two words 'college applications', also counts as PE requirement giving her more time for other subjects and lets her avoid the dreaded dodgeball."

"Yeah, that will probably do it. I never met Jessie, you think he'll go for the same logic?"

"Jessie's easier, if he thinks it will get him anywhere with Cordelia, or any other girl for that matter, he'll be in."

"So one word, 'pussy'," Faith said giving Xander a sly smile.

"Not going to deny that," Xander said. "He's my best friend but dude has a serious case of horny."

"Shifting gears," Faith held up the stake. "What about other weapons?"

"Well, particularly with mom's announcement of the divorce, buying a bunch of swords and axes would freak her out, assuming we had the budget for it, but let me show you something," Xander lead her down to the basement. He pulled a moving blanket off an old gun safe and quickly spun the dial working the combination. He stepped back to reveal several pistols and long guns.

"Some of these are technically my dad's so he might take them in the divorce but I can see mom claiming them for spite. More than half of them though belonged to my grand dad."

"If you had these, how come you never- "

"Let me count the ways: We were underage so we have to be extra careful about them, the cops for all their incompetence would respond to gunshots - think the sporting good store incident - Buffy, and through her, Willow had a pathological hatred of guns, and yeah, they don't kill vampires, although vampires have a harder time chasing you with no kneecaps. So we have these in instances where guns may be useful." Xander closed the safe and placed the blanket back over it. "My Uncle Rory hunts, maybe we can talk him in to teaching us, he and my dad used to go together, with my dad out of the picture, or hell my dad might take it as an opportunity to bond with me. You know promotes responsibility, blah, blah, would give us a legitimate reason to be into guns and bows."

When they got back upstairs, Faith looked at him, "Well I have something to contribute to the war chest. When I thought I might have to run, I grabbed my mom and her boyfriend's money and a couple things worth selling. It's not a fortune, but it's a couple thousand dollars."

"There's a lot we can do with a couple grand," Xander said. "Have you thought of anything to use it for?"

"What do you think your mom's opinions are of tattoos?" Faith asked thinking about

"She'd freak, but she has one that I'm pretty sure she got before she turned 18 so if it is the one way we 'act out,' for the time being, we could probably get away with it. Are you thinking spidey sense?"

"Yeah, and maybe something like the council wet works teams had for anti-scrying."

"Okay, I can think of a couple of books from the magic shop that we're going to want then for reference," Xander said.

The two teenagers ended up passed out on the sofa watching TV and woke to the beeping of Faith's watch alarm. Faith shook herself awake, she wasn't going to mention it but talking late into the night and then falling asleep watching TV lead to the best sleep she'd had in a week. She was surprised that they didn't wake up together laying together, but instead each of them was burrowed into a corner of the sofa their feet touching in the center.

"Wake up Lazybones," Faith said standing up and stretching.

"Why did you set the alarm for"- Xander paused to look at his watch – "six a.m.?" Xander replied.

"Training," the dark haired girl replied with a smile. "What time does Aunt Jessica get home?"

"Around eight."

"Okay Mr. I-want-to-be-a-team-player, let's go for a run," Faith said as she went up stairs.

"Hunh?" Xander asked intelligently, following her.

"Well, if you want to make the cross country team, we should start training." Faith said as she closed the door to her room. Knowing he could hear her through the closed door, she kept talking, "Besides, it's something we can start on now, later today, we can go by the library and look up the results from last year's JV team so we can see what our goals are. Tonight when your mom goes to work, you and I can start sparring. We need to get our instincts used to our bodies again."

Faith knocked on Xander's door.

"Open." He said, she watched him finish lacing his shoes.

Out on the front steps, they stretched and got ready to run. "So where to Xander?"

"Well I figure it's about two miles to school, so let's try for that, we can walk back if need be." Xander said, starting the stop watch taking off at what felt to his older mind like a slow warm up pace. As he and Faith made their way through the neighborhood, he pointed things out that she wouldn't have known in her previous residence in Sunnydale. They were able to work up to a moderate pace and Xander hit the timer on his watch when they arrived at the school. They both collapsed on a bench.

Catching her breath, Faith looked at him, "How bad is it?"

"fifteen minutes and change, how are you feeling?"

Faith blew out a deep breath, "like I should be able to jog all the way home, which is better than I expected. So still set on doing the Letterman thing?"

Xander smiled, "Yeah, the Hyena likes to run, I'm feeling pretty good."

The two teens took a minute to get a drink from a water fountain and then head back. When they got halfway home, Faith decided to up the pace a little bit. "Come on slow poke," she said as she pushed past Xander. They egged each other on until the last two blocks were at an all out sprint. Xander pushed past her two houses away from his and stopped in the shade of the driveway a huge grin on his face. Faith stood hands on knees looking up at him, "Damn X-man, you've got some speed."

"Thanks Faith," Xander said between heavy breaths, after a minute, he led her to the back yard, "There's a weight bench and weights in the garage, but it's buried, sometime this week we can dig it out."

"Okay do you want to do Tai Chi or the Marsoc shortcard?" Faith asked with a grin.

"let's do the Marsoc, until you can teach me Tai Chi, if Mom gets home early, I don't want to give her any reason to suspect things are out of the ordinary."

Faith came down from showering just as Aunt Jessica walked in the front door. "Good morning."

"Good morning, I didn't expect you to be awake this early," the older woman said.

"East coast time, plus I haven't been able to run the last week, so I dragged Xander out with me this morning." Faith answered, this caused Jessica to raise an eyebrow. they heard Xander in the kitchen. Jessica put down her purse and walked into the kitchen.

After thanking Xander for making breakfast, the sat down, "Faith, when I get up this afternoon, we have a meeting with your assigned social worker, who happens to be my friend Vivian, then tomorrow we need to get you registered for school."

"Aunt Jessica, Xander and I were talking last night, do you think I could skip eighth grade?" She gave her most earnest look, "I'm sure I can pass end of year tests or any freshman placement tests for ninth grade. Then we'd be in the same school, which would make it easier for you for parent teacher conferences, transportation, and stuff."

"Let's talk to Vivian, this afternoon, if she thinks it can be done, we'll talk to the school, it would make it a little easier for me." She took a sip of her tea, "So knowing that you need to be back here by three, what do you two have planned for today?"

"Well, I figured we could take our bikes and I could show Faith around town, stop by and introduce her to Willow and Jessie."

"Okay, have fun, but be back here before three," Xander's mom said. "Thank you for breakfast, I'm going to bed."

A.N.: Yeah I know just going out and running like that is not the optimal way to get into shape for team racing, but neither of them has been involved in training non-enhanced humans other than potentials who I assume are all above average physically. I don't know who started it in Fic, but the idea that post Primal and post swim team, Xander is an enhanced human makes sense to me. It is IMO easily supported by canon with the amount of physical damage he takes and keeps going.