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Chapter 1: Talking To You

Author's Notes:

The First was squashed and the ubervamps were dust and Sunnydale was a big crater and the day was saved. Plus Buffy and Faith weren’t the only ones anymore and that meant some R&R. than Giles called and Faith kissed her R&R goodbye, “We need you in Cleveland, seems the hell mouth there is getting more active since Sunnydale was destroyed.” So now Faith was sitting there on the phone listening to Giles ramble on about destiny and so on.

“Alright alright G, I’ll go I’ll do my damn thing. I’ll kill the bad vampires and demons and somewhat except my calling. Just give it a rest already, damn.” Clicking the phone shut she sighed and started to pack her bags, “Goodbye Boston Hello Ohio…damn it.” Seconds later she got a text, from Giles. ‘Call me when you reach Ohio, I have a home for you.’ “Home as in actual house, here’s hoping!” Smiling she scooped up her cat, ET and put him in the caring case. “ET, go home?” she laughed at her own joke and frowned that no one was around to hear it. ET mewed at her lameness, “Yeah yeah I know lame, alright E time to go on a trip.” Once inside ET cried and bumped against the case to get out, “I know you hate the case Bud, but I’m not driving all the way to Cleveland with you jumping around like a spaz.”

Faith packed up her truck with everything she thought she would need and left a message for her landlord on his work phone and headed out. The drive wasn’t so long really only took her a few nights, stopping for the occasional event and party. A few hours outside of Ohio she decided now would be a great time to call Robin.

“Where the heck are you?”

“Hello Principle Wood,” She heard a sigh of annoyance on the other end. “I’ll be there in a few hours, so chill.” Closing her phone she tossed it on the passenger seat and continued her drive to Cleveland. For the next three hours Faith cranked up the radio on the dead high way and rolled down the window’s to air out the cat smell in the car. Bobbing her head up and down as Chad Kroeger’s Hero From the Spiderman soundtrack came on she sung along with the lyrics. Right when the song ended she heard her phone give off a beeping sound, looking down she sighed and saw the name ‘Robin’, “What the hell does he want now?” She called him back and waited for his answer, “What?” Faith listened to Robin who said he called like four times in the last three hours and got no answer. “I was listening to my radio, unlike you old people I blast it.”

“Well I called Giles because I didn’t know where the hell you were.”

“Sounds like your worried Wood, I think your compassion is showing.”

“No just afraid you got yourself hurt on the way here; you know how you can be.” Faith felt her anger boiling but suppressed it, he was always treating her like a child. She was old enough to screw but not trust apparently, “Buffy is also on her way and-” Before anything else could be said Faith hung up. Pissed off and in no mood Faith arrived, he was standing on the porch with keys in his hand and Faith grabbed them as she walked by.

“Thanks for stopping by.” She growled.

“Don’t be mad at me, if you answered the phone I would have gotten all worried.” Faith was struggling with the door so Robin grabbed the keys and unlocked the door for her. “I’m suppose to stay here and wait for Buffy she’ll be coming any moment.” Once the door was open Faith pushed her way inside and ignored him. “I don’t understand why we can’t be friends; we worked just fine together when we took out the first.”

“Listen it’s been a long ride and I’m beat and In no mood to listen to Principle wood give another one of his ‘No running in the halls’ speeches. Save it for someone who cares yeah?” Closing the front door she walked into the living room and opened ET’s carrier case. Once out, ET darted from one side of the room to the other happy about his new freedom.

“I don’t want to fight with you, alright. After Buffy gets here I’ll be gone,” Faith sat down and lit a cigarette, watching as ET ran up to wood and rubbed against his leg. “Hey there big boy I remember you.” While Faith and Wood were still together, he had gotten her the cat. A surprise gift and she fell in love with it, “remember me don’t you?” Robin picked him up and ET rubbed up against his cheek. “Maybe you could talk your mama into liking me as a friend, she’s mad at me.”

“Robin don’t be a dick,” Faith grinned and walked over and took ET back, “using my baby to get to me, you should be ashamed.”

“I’m not looking for anything from you; I just want us to be friends.” Robin took a step forward and rubbed ET behind the ears, “I feel bad about how I ended it and I shouldn’t have done that to you.” Faith looked Robin up and down and than into his eyes; they were the eyes of a sincere man.

“Friends than,” They shared a smile and decided on some take out for dinner, by the time the pizza arrived Buffy arrived, “Hey B,” They shared a smile and Buffy shook her head in disbelief. “What’s the what B?”

“Good to see you’re alright, Giles thought you were in trouble. So he sent me out here to come and find you,”

“Just took a few stops on the way,” Faith past a plate to Buffy and sat down next to her at the table, Robin on the other side.

After eating in almost silence Robin stood and placed his plate in the sink. “Oh,” Both girls turned to look at Robin, he reached into his bag and pulled out a folder. “Here’s the list of troubles in town, Giles thought it be easier than explaining it. So if you two need anything call me, I’ll see you in the office tomorrow morning. Address is in the folder.” Robin placed the folder down on the table and made his way out the door leaving Buffy and Faith alone. After Faith took Buffy to her room and smiled, ET following behind. When they stopped ET rubbed up against Buffy’s leg and meowed for attention.

“You remember ET?” Buffy knelt down and picked the cat up.

“Yeah, hey bubba.”

“So are we going to continue with the awkward silence thing or actually talk?”

“What is there to talk about?”

“For starters, what the heck were doing here? I know we got some serious trouble brewing, but what trouble is that?”

“The second?”

“What we usually talk about, us.” Buffy shook her head and placed ET down, “We can’t keep avoiding it B, you know that.”

“I’m tired and really not in the mood.”

“Well we should go over the stuff in the envelope.”

“In the morning, I’m tired.”

“Alright, I’ll make breakfast in the morning.”

*~*~*~*

Faith woke up early that morning and walked down to a store she had seen around the corner. She bought some waffles, eggs, bacon and gallon of Orange juice. “Anything else?” The store clerk had asked before Faith could even take out her wallet.

“Yeah, pack of one hundreds, red.” After paying she headed home to put on the coffee and start breakfast, she could hear Buffy moving around up stairs. Knowing once the coffee smell reached up stairs Buffy would be coming down. Frying up the bacon, eggs and toasting the waffles she poured two cups of coffee just as Buffy came walking into the kitchen. “Eat up B.” Buffy looked kind of shocked at the sight in front of her, “I told you I was making breakfast.”

“You can cook?”

“Yeah it’s something I picked up on.” Buffy sat down in front of a plate and smiled, “good to see you smiling.” Buffy looked up over the rim of her cup as Faith sat across from her. “More eggs if you want them.” Faith smiled and put all of her attention back on her plate in front of her. Only looking down as ET came strutting in and meowing at his empty dish, “Sorry E,” she scratched behind his ears and poured in some tuna flavored food for him. “Forgive me?” he purred as he ate and that was good enough for her. “He’s grumpy in the morning.”

“So we should go over the envelope Robin gave us, don’t want to go into a meeting unprepared.” Nodding Faith placed it in the center of the table than refreshed both there cups of coffee. After about thirty minutes Buffy let out an annoyed sigh, “normal slayer problems so I don’t understand why they needed us. I mean any of the newbie slayers could have done this.”

“Maybe they wanted the experts to get things done quickly?” Faith was slightly annoyed herself. “So now that that discussion is done, new subject.” Buffy looked up, “How ya been, B?” smiling she shook her head and finished her coffee off, “Oh come on something exciting had to have happened. I mean trouble always seems to find you and the merry band of slayerettes, right?”

“Same old same old, Demon and Vampires need to be slain. Bad guy activity picked up since the girls were called. We can save a lot of people now that there are more of us.”

“The original gang, how are they?”

“Good, Willow and Kennedy were in Brazil and than moved to New York. Willow still travels a lot looking for slayer and convincing them to join the school.”

“School?”

“Yeah Giles started an operation in Scotland, nice castle. Xander and I are running it while Giles is off in England rebuilding the council and finding the remaining members.”

“Sounds like you all busy little beavers.”

“Such is the life of a slayer and her friends, so I have a question for you.” Faith poured her and Buffy more coffee, “Why did you come back Faith?” Faith sat down with a hurt expression on her face, quickly Buffy shook her head. “That’s not how I meant it; its just you said you wanted out.”

“I did, than Giles called me and started going on and on about my calling. You know how persuasive he can be and annoying.” Buffy smiled, “So I picked up roots from Boston again and than came here. I wanted nothing else but to live out my life and died a normal age, crazy old spinster lady with my cat. But as Angel told me over and over, that’s not the way redemption works.”

“How were things in Boston?”

“I was doing good in bean town; I’d of course run into a slayer here and there. I have a few contacts that I know G would love to get on his list. Demon population is way down when I was there and it was away from temptation.” Faith looked over to Buffy with a smile, she could tell the blonde slayer knew where this was going- Faith changed topics. “Plus, you haven’t lived until you traveled in a car with a claustrophobic cat, I swear he hates that damn cat carrier. Every time I stopped he would let out a crazy wheeze, it took me three stops to figure out what he was doing.” Buffy burst out into laughter; ET jumped onto the table and rubbed his body against Faith’s arms. “See he knows I’m talking about him,” After breakfast Buffy helped clean up and than they both got ready for the day. Still having an hour they sat in the living room, Faith playing with ET and Buffy reading the newspaper.

“Faith have you seen the paper this morning?”

“Nah,” Faith scooted up next to Buffy and looked over her shoulder. “Lots of missing people, kind of sketchy to me.”

“Why wasn’t this in Robin’s report?”

“One way to find out,” After Buffy got off the phone they entered into Robin woods office without knocking first. Robin himself was on the phone with someone at the time, smiling Faith grabbed the phone; “He’ll call you back.” Slamming the phone down she turned to Robin and grinned. “Hey lover.”

“In civilize cultures people know how to knock.”

“Oh were sorry,” Buffy slammed the paper down on his desk. “I guess we’ll come back.” Robin had no expression on his face as he looked down at the paper. “Fifteen people missing in the last two weeks, do you want to explain or should I?”

“I didn’t know the problem was so serious, women go missing all the time.”

“I never mentioned anything about it being just women,” Robin stood up and quickly Faith pushed him back down into the chair roughly. “Either tell us the truth or I’m going to have to get violent.” Robin looked towards the door and frowned when he saw one of the slayer girls just close it instead of helping him. “They won’t help you Robin, so spill it.”

“About two months ago I got a call from a demon; he didn’t give me a name. Said he was going to start causing trouble if I didn’t get my slayers and get out of town. I didn’t believe him so I ignored the call and kept sending the girls out on patrols. A month ago is when the disappearances started to happen.” Leaning over the desk Buffy grabbed Robin roughly and punched him.

“Try again Wood, we just got off the phone with a contact of yours. Seems you’ve been caught in some demon haunts, having drinks with the demons and exchanging money. The Kind of money that doesn’t get them to talk but the kind that gets them to do favors for you, you should pay your demons better Robin – Maybe they would have kept there mouths shut.” It only took seconds for Robin to push his chair backwards and roll out of the way from Faith and Buffy’s grasp. “Don’t make this hard on yourself Robin, you don’t have to get hurt.”

B, I don’t think its Robin anymore.” Robin gave out this loud screech as his skin started to peel from his body. When the last piece of skin fell, the girls looked up at the demon that wore the Mr. Wood suit. “That’s just fucking gross.”

“Later I’ll tell you the story of the Sunnydale swim team.” Buffy pushed Faith left as the demon swung and she ducked right to escape. By the time they finished the fight, the demon was dead in pieces on the floor.

“Do you think it was really wood or-” Faith looked kind of upset at the idea that Wood had just been killed.

“No, maybe the demon guy has wood? Maybe when he realized he wasn’t going to get his way, he kidnapped him?” Buffy placed a hand on Faith’s shoulder and immediately Faith pulled away. “Faith…”

“Let’s just report back to G, see what he has to say. I’ll go see if the girls have anything to say about this.” Giles sent Buffy and Faith home until further notice and said that a colleague would be there in a few hours to take over. “I felt like a superstar,” Faith tossed her coat onto the chair before walking into the living room and sitting down on the couch. “I swear those girls look at us like rock stars.” Buffy laughed and sat down next to Faith, ET had run into the room and jumped right onto Buffy’s lap, “Traitor.”

“Probably still mad at you for the carrying case,” Buffy scratched behind ET’s ears and under his chin. “Well we have a free day, so what should we do now?”

“Maybe we should check out the sights, haven’t been in Cleveland before.”

“Me neither.”

So that was settled and after Faith filled ET’s food and water dish they headed out. Instead of checking out the sights they found a coffee shop and basically sat there all day, drinking coffee. After Coffee they decided to get some lunch and than go on a walk in a park they past. “This feels nice I never thought we could actually get along like this.”

“That’s my fault; I tend to ruin everything I touch.” Faith placed her key in the door and entered inside, Buffy following close behind.

“Don’t think like that, none of us made it easy for you. Maybe if we all tried a little harder you wouldn’t have gone off like you did?” Buffy took there coats and hung them on the coat rack just as Faith was about to toss hers on the chair.

“Don’t try to take the blame here; I did the only thing I thought I should. I tried to make things better by pretending they didn’t exist. I tried to make excuses and blame my shit on you; you had every reason to give up on me.” Buffy grabbed Faith’s arm and pulled to get her attention.

“No one should be given up on, not even you.”

“I felt like-I still feel like a failure at life.” Faith felt Buffy’s hand on her cheek and this time she didn’t pull away. “B, I just needed to get away.” Buffy leaned up and pressed her lips against Faiths for just a second and than pulled away, “Buffy…”

“You’re not a failure.”

“Yes I am.”

“No, no you’re not.” Buffy pulled Faith closer and pressed her lips against Faith’s, deepening the kiss as ET meowed in the corner. Pulling away they rested there head on each others and stayed like that. “Running away from your problems won’t solve anything; we both can speak from experience.” They sat on the couch and Buffy pulled Faith to her and held her there for a while.

“No one understands what I’m going through.”

“You can talk to me; I won’t judge you Faith not anymore.”

“I can’t B,” Faith tried to pull away but Buffy wouldn’t let her.

“Ok you don’t have to talk to me,” Buffy shifted her body towards Faith and lifted so she could look into Faith’s eyes. “but if you ever feel up to it, I’m here to listen.”

“Thanks B.”

“So you Five by Five now?” Buffy grinned and pressed her lips to Faith’s forehead.

“Thanks to you.”

The End