A Phone Call

[i_wrasselgators]

Who: Faith and Wesley
Where: She in her latest motel room in Bon Temps; he in Los Angeles
When: After arriving in Bon Temps
What: Information over the phone
Status: Complete

Faith was sweating - a LOT. Those movies about the deep South really didn't overdramatize the sweatiness you would encounter in this part of the country. If she hadn't been

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[i_wrasselgators]

Once upon a time, this situation occurring right now would never happen. It would never be predicted to happen. Faith calling Wesley. Wesley answering without hanging up as soon as he figured out who it was... no, this was not a scenario that Faith ever thought could/would happen. But she was glad she was wrong. They proved to be an asset to each other once they let their pasts go and got down to business. Sad as it may be, they could've made a powerful Watcher/Slayer team. But that time has past, for the most part.

She leaned back against the headboard, staring at the television set before her. "Can't do anythin' for me, actually," she said with a smile in her voice. "Actually, just callin' to see if you heard about this crazy vampire shit that's goin' down in this part of the country. I'm in Louisiana right now. Heard about how the vamps here are hometown heroes and thought how fucked up that was."

She pulled her arm around the back of her head to lean on it. "You and your big bad law firm has gotta have some explanation for this madness, right?"

[watcher_pryce]

For a moment Wesley wondered why she had called him and not Angel, after all Faith and Angel were on better terms. Then of course he was reminded how Angel seemed rather out of touch lately, distracted by the return of Cordelia and in general was a very hard man--pire to get ahold up.

The young ex-watcher was probably the next best thing. Or third best thing, something like that. Wesley didn't mind, though he did regret that he'd never gotten a chance to be an actual
Watcher every now and then. But that chance had vanished with Faith to be honest and would never return again.

No matter the fact that there were hundreds of slayers running around now. The Council hadn't asked him to return, Giles hadn't contacted him, the message had been loud and clear. No doubt, Wesley thought, a fault of his new work place.

This, however, was none of Faith's fault nor did she probably know about this. Or care.

Faith was just Faith. Which she proved moments later when he heard the smile in her voice. It made him smile slightly as well. Wesley crossed his arm against his chest and leaned back in his chair. But only for a moment, because the second Faith mentioned where she was and what was going on Wesley pushed his glasses back on and stared at the papers in front of him.

"Actually," he muttered, shuffling through some papers, "I've only just recently heard about this phenomenon from Lorne. I am looking into this but-- I have to admit Faith, this is rather confusing all. What can you tell me having seen this-- whatever this is first hand? Do you think it's a ploy?"

[i_wrasselgators]

Faith knew Angel and Wesley would've heard about what's going on. It definitely wasn't a secret to the general public, so it stands to reason that even on the West Coast, Angel and the crew would at least hear about it. And if anyone would know the most about it, it would be Wesley.

"Haven't been here that long," she admitted as she flipped the channel. "Me and Giles were chasin' down a runaway Slayer that led us here to New Orleans. Had heard about weird shit like this goin' down but didn't expect to be endin' up in the middle of it. Honestly, had't personally run into it, but in tryin' to track down the girl, we came across some demons and vamps that have been talkin' about that tru blood shit." She shrugged. "Had keep keep a low profile, so we didn't really tell 'em what the hell we were doin' there, which, gotta say, is hard to do - young, nublie thing like me and handsome older fella like Giles."

She leaned back on her arm again with a grin. "So, what can ya' tell me about this tru blood?"

[watcher_pryce]

"Ah..."

Wait. What? Me and *Giles*. Wesley blinked as he tried to picture Giles and Faith as a Watcher and a Slayer. And for a brief moment, just a moment he felt a flash of-- protectiveness, jealousy, anger going through him. He blinked again at those feelings and then quickly shook them away.

They had their chance, more or less - not really if one wanted to be brutally honest - it had come and gone, it hadn't worked out. They had both made their choices. Though to Wesley, Faith would always be *his* Slayer, he knew it wasn't a claim he could ever utter out loud.

"True blood?" Wesley asked, feeling somewhat perplexed. "As in-- pure blood, royal blood?" He had no idea really about this true blood, that hadn't been mentioned in all the papers he'd gotten from his sources.

Frowning he thumb through them, phone between his shoulder and his ear while he searched for a reference to this 'true blood'. He was so busy he barely noticed Spike sauntering into the room. Then again the ghostly vampire was want to do this so Wesley barely noticed lately.

"Tru blood, you git," Spike scoffed, trying his hardest to solidify his finger and push a rather expensive artefact off a shelf. "It's a drink they made for vampire so they aint goin' 'round drainin' people."

Spike turned around and gave a frowning Wesley an amused look. "Gotta know the right sources, watcher man," Spike said, bizarrely able to tap his own nose while he was unable to touch anything else.

"Right," Wesley muttered, ignoring Spike's following rant about 'why those tosser would come up with that now when he coudl have used it--' that was something he'd ask about later, right now he turned back to Faith.

"Did you hear the possibly reliable source?" Wesley asked while Spike's "Oy!" went once again ignored. "Apparently true blood is synthesised or some such? For vampire to drink. Really this is--unheard off. When did all this happen?" And-- why?

[i_wrasselgators]

Faith listened a moment, hearing the papers going as she mentioned the Tru Blood information. Of course, she could probably hear Wesley's wheels turning in his head, too, if she really strained to listen. He and Giles were a lot more alike than they probably wanted to admit to themselves. Both had a certain edge to them that they seemed to want to hide. It made them more adult or some silly shit like that.

She began to munch on some nearby potato chips when she heard another voice in the background. Knitting her brows together, she was trying to make sure she was hearing who she thought she was hearing. "Is that SPIKE?" she blurted, sitting up slightly. Didn't the guy blow up with the rest of Sunnydale?

But Wesley sounded like even he was pretending the vampire wasn't there, speaking in his hear. "Yeah, I heard the guy loud and clear, but what the fuck is he doing there? I saw him go down with the town! Well, I didn't actually see the prick go down with it, but B's face was enough to tell the story..." Faith knew the two had a thing going, and honestly, Spike ended up not being such a bad guy. They had had a moment before SunnyD went down. Not THE moment, but Faith was busy doing the diddy with someone else anyway.

"When? Ain't really sure," she said, pushing past the Spike thing for now. "Can't be too long. Maybe past couple of months? Pretty much around the same time the world's waged war against us 'terrorists.' As for why, your guess is as good as mine... probably even better. All I could put together was that it's started here in New Orleans, place called Bon Temps. Giles don't seem as keen to it, either."

She frowned as another news report showed more vampire love. "What I know, though, Wes, is that vamps are heroes. And not in the Angel way, either. Ain't buyin' that just 'cause they ain't drinkin' down kegs of people's blood, it makes them a White Hat. But whoever's makin' this shit seems to know what kind of effect it would have to the general public."

[watcher_pryce]

Somewhat perplexed Wesley looked down the phone for a moment before putting it back to his ear. Faith hadn't known about Spike coming back? Ghostly, granted, but still. It never occurred to Wesley that someone might not know.

After all, it wasn't as if he had been in touch with the Sunnydale crowd since he left there on his motor bike to become-- whatever it had been he'd tried to prove then. Cordy sometimes had called Willow and there had been very little of that.

Of course he'd heard about Spike joining forces with the Slayer but he didn't know the details. And to be quite honest, once Angel got on his high horse about Spike or Buffy or anything Sunnydale related, Wesley tuned him out and made a quick get away.

So to say that Wesley was more into touch with his books and research then any social events in any way, would be an understatement. And really nothing new.

"Err... yes, that was Spike," he said, glancing over at the vampire who made a face, "he just sort of showed up here. Leaping out of a medallion," Wesley finished.

"Bugger," Spike growled, "who's that?" He looked both hopeful and hesitant but Wesley did notice his face falling just a little bit when he said, "Faith," before the vampire's mask slammed back into place.

Spike shrugged and went back to trying to push down artefacts wreak other sorts of havoc. Wesley paid him no mind and went back to Faith. Who had also quickly gotten over the fact that it was indeed Spike here in the room.

"Us... terrorists?" Now it was Wesley's turn to sound surprised. He really was socially out of touch with the world. He didn't even watch the news due to lack of time. If there was anything important going on he trusted the others to inform him like they had always done. They hadn't so... "what are you talking about? Terrorists?

Things were starting to get more confusing by the second. And not just on the 'vampires have suddenly gone good' front. Dear lord. Wesley automatically reached up to pull off his glasses - which he only used when doing research these days - and pinched the bridge of his nose.

[i_wrasselgators]

Faith could only raise he brows at the mention of him leaping out of a medallion. Was it that medallion that Buffy held on to while they were battling the undead below the high school? She vaguely remembered that whole thing but knew at the same time, she wasn't involved in that particular part of the plan. She shrugged it off, knowing Wesley couldn't see either motion. "Okay, whatever you say, Wes," she stated.

Whatever impact Spike being alive would have on Buffy wasn't part of Faith's business, that was for damn sure.

"You didn't hear? B did something that wasn't so smart - did some major stealin' gig and the government caught wind of it, then automatically labeled us Slayers part of a group of terrorists. So not only is this Tru Blood shit makin' vamps look like the good guys, but we got the world thinkin' slayers are out to take over the world. We got demons and the government out to get us, Wes. It ain't a pretty sight. And I gotta feelin' that the vamps are gonna somehow take advantage of the situation."

She sat up on the bed, rustling around in her duffel bag. Damn, she suddenly needed a cigarette. Once she found the crumpled pack, she stuck one in her mouth and lit it up with her lighter. "It's a fuckin' mess here. And me and G-Man just got here, too."

[watcher_pryce]

"Hmhm," Wesley nodded, not surprised that Faith skipped past the whole Spike thing. She was a Slayer, stranger things happened. Buffy, for example, had come back from the dead. Faith herself had some extraordinary experiences. Some which Wesley blamed himself for, even if it had been the only choice at the time.

"He's a ghost though," he added, watching with some amusement as the former vampire scowled at him and muttered something rather unflattering about Wesley's heritage under his none breath.

"Wanker," Spike growled, putting even more effort into tossing some very expensive artefact off the shelf.

As he listened to Faith explain the whole terrorist thing - which honestly had him blinking with astonishment - he walked over and secured the priceless artefact before Spike succeeded to break it.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Wesley wondered out loud, "it's almost as though we turned around and when we looked back we're in a mirror world. Where vampires are good and Slayers are considered evil." That wouldn't do. Oh that just wouldn't do at all.

"Something rather fishy is going on here," Wesley concluded, "vampire's are evil, I wouldn't trust them for anything."

"Oy!" Spike frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "We aint all bad. Maybe we always been good and just didn't know how to show it."

Wesley just looked at him for quite some time until the vampire shrugged. "Or not," Spike concluded. He, too, had to agree that something wasn't quite right there. Here. Had this already been spread?

G-man? Who was G--Oh! Mister Giles. Of course, Xander used to refer to the poor man in such a way. And now Faith as well. "So you and Mister Giles only noticed these things happening with the vampires where you're currently at? Not elsewhere in the world?" Wesley wanted to know, once again ignoring the small stab of jealousy going through him at the words 'me and G-man'.

[i_wrasselgators]

"Yeah, what the fuck *IS* goin' on, Wes? That's the reason I called ya'!" Faith proclaimed as she stood by the lone window and puffed away at her cigarette. Although, people considering Slayers evil wasn't a new concept to Faith. She was sure she wasn't the first and she wouldn't be the last, hence crazy rich bitch who tried to kill her, but she hated the fact that she was even associated with her.

Faith listened to the exchange between Spike and Wesley, smirking slightly. Damn, that vampire was annoying as hell. She blew out some smoke and bet a billion dollars, the ghostly vamp hated he couldn't have one of these. "Not really, no," she admitted to his question about noticing it anywhere else. "Think it's been local more than anythin' else. Ain't to say it's not spreadin' like the plague. If you haven't seen shit like this in Los Angeles, then I'm guessin' it hasn't gone global. The Slayer as Terrorists thing might be, though."

She paused a moment. "And did you say Spike is a fuckin' ghost?"