Buffy hung up the phone, feeling apprehensive. 'Why is mom mad?' she thought, 'did she talk to Giles? Crap, I know she likes Xander, what if she believes I was bullying him like that Pony lady said. And why does she want the spare room cleaned, that doesn't make any sense. Oh, well I better get it taken care of before she gets home.'
Buffy began moving the boxes down to the basement, being careful not to break anything with her slayer strength. There wasn't that much and it didn't take her very long, but did leave her dusty and even more cranky than she had been before.
'A shower will help me feel better,' she thought. As she was getting dressed afterward, she heard her mom's jeep in the drive and thought, 'great now I get yelled at for the crap storm Xander brought,' and headed downstairs. She was shocked to see Faith getting out of the jeep too. 'What is she doing here?' Buffy went to the door and held it open for both her mother and Faith to enter, as she did, she noticed Faith had a bag with her, 'What is going on?' she thought. "Mom, what's going on?"
"Faith needs a place to live, a real home and not that horrid place, that so called motel should be burned to the ground. You knew she was living there and said nothing?!"
"Well, it's not like she said anything about it. If she didn't want to live there, why didn't she asked Giles to move her somewhere else?"
"I didn't know if he would B, it wasn't like he even really noticed me or anything."
"Why didn't Wesley move you?"
"He never asked where I was living. Neither of them did. I figured if they wanted to know, they'd ask. 'Sides the Post lady knew, so I figured they did too and just didn't care." Faith answered.
Joyce felt her annoyance at Rupert return, they were going to be having a long and potentially painful discussion soon. Joyce could hear the suppressed pain and longing in Faith's voice, though she doubted Faith was even aware of it and doubted Buffy could hear it herself. She took a deep breath to calm herself and said, "Faith, honey, let me show you to your room. You can put away your stuff and then we're going shopping and before you ask, Buffy, no you're not coming with. I'm sure you have homework to finish, so work on that and when we get back, you I are going to have a chat, young lady. Now go to your room. I'll talk to you later. Come on, Faith."
Faith followed Mrs. S up the stairs, trying to wrap her mind around what was happening. She kept trying to reastablish her walls, but Mrs. S kept her so off guard so couldn't get them back. She was starting to hope this was real and not a dream. It felt both scary and weird, but also kinda nice, that people really did seem to care. But at the same time, this all could be a trick, so she resolved to keep an eye open, people always wanted something and sooner or later, she would know what it was. She'd enjoy this while it lasted and maybe the price wouldn't be too high.
As Faith and Joyce headed off to the mall, Buffy headed to her room to do homework and sulk. It was a beautiful Sunday, she should be outside soaking up some rays, instead she was stuck inside having to think about stuff she really didn't want to think about. The Pony lady had thought she was a bully. But Buffy hadn't thought of herself that way. She really had thought everything Xander did was to impress her and therefore what she did was simply to keep him safe from himself. So that didn't make her a bully did it? Maybe the way she had gone about it was wrong, but she had just been so frustrated with Xander and his constant need to help and how he seemed to just get in the way. But the images Epione had shown them, had she really been that reckless? Had Xander's actions really been necessary? Each of those images – and wow there had been a lot of them! - had seemed to show that they had been necessary. She wondered when Xander's feelings for her had changed and why she hadn't noticed. She knew after he started dating Cordelia there had still been some interest there but as time had gone on, he and Cordelia had become much more of a real couple. Very into each other. 'I must not be as observant as I thought, I mean I missed Xander's issues, Faith's problems and WOW did I really miss Willow's. Maybe I really should talk to mom, because I have no idea how to handle any of it. That's not going to fun.'
As Buffy was reconsidering all her actions and Joyce and Faith were heading to the mall, Alexander was staring at his phone and trying to get up the courage to call Cordelia. He really needed to hear her voice and talk to her, but what if she was still mad at him? Would she listen this time? And maybe the biggest question of all, did she still love him?
Finally, he reached for the phone and dialled her direct line, anxiously waiting for her to pick up the other end. "Hello?" he felt light headed as he heard her familiar voice, "Cordy, its me, I was wondering if we could talk, if it's too soon, I understand, I can call later or - "
"Xander, come over ok, we have a lot to talk about, the gate code hasn't changed. My parents aren't here, just come up to my room."
"Ok, I'll be right there," he answered, extatic, Cordy was willing to talk! Maybe she could forgive him, maybe they could get back together and then she would smile at him again and everything would be good again. He had missed her so much.
Alexander drove quickly, but carefully over to Cordy's place. He was so nervous he was afraid he'd have an accident and nothing short of an appocalyps was going to keep him and Cordy from sorting out their problems!
As he drove he ruminated on just what all they would need to discuss. He knew he was going to need to tell her about Faith. Face it, if they had a hope in hell of getting back together, he was going need to be honest. After all, it was one of the things Cordelia valued most. So that meant he'd also need to tell her about O'Tool and the bomb and everything else that had happened that night and he knew she wasn't going to be happy. Heck, he wasn't very happy himself with the way Faith had tossed him out and he was afraid to ask if that meant he had sucked. Well, it was his first time, and like everything else only practice would help him improve. But he wanted to practice with Cordy, not Faith. Well ok, if he was going to be completely honest practicing with Faith would be fun, she was just as hot as Cordy after all! But Cordy was the one he loved, she was the one he really wanted to be with. 'So, if your listening Epione or Janus, could you kind of help us so this goes well, if that isn't a selfish question, it might be, oh great I'm babbling in my own thoughts now.' Fortunately, he realized he had arrived at Cordelia's place and he pulled into the drive and entered the code for the gate, which slid smoothly open in front of his car. He parked in front of the house and headed up to the front door, which was unlocked.
'A good sign,' he thought, 'she literally isn't locking me out.' He took the stairs two at time, anxious now to see Cordelia and get starting on their talk. 'Here goes nothing,' he thought as reached for the handle on door, 'oh, who am I kidding, this for everything!'