"So how's the fam?" Faith asked, once she and Dawn were seated on the ugly couch she couldn't believe Cordelia would ever own. She and Xander must really not have had a lot of money to work with. She looked around the apartment and found it was a clean, bright place. The windows were open to catch the fresh, late spring air. A soft afghan covered up most of the back of the ugly couch and an equally soft, brightly colored rug covered the floor in front of it. Pictures of the four people who lived in this apartment hung on the walls and a painting that she thought might have hung in the living room of the Summers home hung over the couch. Other pictures included Buffy and Willow in High School, the last time the real Xander and Cordelia had seen them and one of Mrs. Summers, Buffy and Dawn was in a frame on the end table. It looked like a cozy family home. Knowing what she did about Xander's family she could understand why he and Cordelia worked so hard to make a welcoming, friendly home for each other and Jesse and Dawn.
"Xander took Jesse Mother's Day shopping. I'm pretty sure he decided to do it now, rather then this weekend, so we could have a little time to ourselves to catch up. Cordelia has an audition for a small role in a movie. It could be her big break, the opportunity to finally do the kind of acting she really wants to do. The role on the soap pays decent money and it's steady work and good experience, but she really wants either movie or theater roles. Or her own tv show, that would be good too. She's been working for it for four of the last five years, after all. The only time she didn't work was the year after Jesse was born and Xander was deployed for half of that year."
"And X? How's he doing?
"Taking a new set of classes at the base, in less then a year he'll be eligible for advancement to Sargeant. Of course, that could also mean he gets deployed again. And you have an official rank too?"
"Yep, I'm Private Faith Lehaine, U. S. Army. And it works, now I understand why Wesley and Xander like guns, they make real short work of demons and I never have to get close to them. The Watchers Council were even stupider than I thought they were. My training even in Basic was more than G or Wes ever gave me. And that was before they broke out the guns for me to play with."
"You do seem happy, confident, the way Xander is. In High School he was always so unsure and Buffy's and Willow's attitudes, not to mention Giles ignoring him most of the time, was a big part of that. He had to shout to be heard, now he speaks calmly and people listen. You used to be all in your face with everything and now you're, this is how I am, take it or leave it."
"Because the important people, the ones who's opinion I actually value, think me, Faith Lehaine, not the Slayer, is worth knowing and helping. Like Diana, my first Watcher, the one Kakistos got, she treated me like that. The Mayor did too, sometimes, but he wanted both, Faith and the Slayer. I stop being the Slayer tomorrow and the General and my team, they're still going to want me around."
"So are we." Dawn assured her. "Me especially, you're not what I thought you were, Faith. What Buffy and Willow wanted me to think you were. Willow didn't want to share 'her' people with you, mostly Buffy and Xander and Buffy thought you betrayed her by joining the Mayor and she thought you were a monster for poisoning Angel. She didn't understand, you were barely hanging onto your sanity after everything that happened to you. I can see you've worked hard to get better. And I just want you to know, I'm proud to be your magically created sister."
Faith barked a laugh passed her own churning emotions and nodded. "I hear you're so damn big brained you're skipping a grade. That's worth being proud of too."
"It's something that says Dawn Summers. You know? You and Xander have the Army, Cordelia has acting and I have learning new things. Not because the monks made me this way, but because I choose to be this way."
"Too many damn people took too many damn choices from all of us. Having the chance to make our own, not to mention, knowing they're good choices, is absolutely amazing." Faith agreed, she stretched out her legs and began to relax. Dawn accepted her, that was the big hurdle. The one that had kept her up nights worrying and wondering about. Faith realized Dawn felt the same way, the need for Faith to accept her. Faith put her hand over Dawn's and squeezed, letting her know, she was accepted. "'Nuff with the heavy stuff, tell me, is there a boy that the brainy beauty that is Dawn Summers likes?"
"Not right now, but that could always change. Is the General letting you date?"
"It's not so much letting me date as scaring the crap out of any guy that shows any interest. He keeps insisting I don't deserve cowardly idiots and sooner or later one of them will prove he's got guts and brains. And then he tries to introduce me to an Army guy he already thinks has guts and brains. They might, but I don't want an Army guy, that's my thing."
Dawn laughed as the two sisters continued to bond.